D 570 
.8 

.C8 N7 
1917a 
Copyl 




THE 



NEW YORK STATE 



MILITARY CENSUS 



AND 



INVENTORY 



THE 

NEW YORK STATE 

Military Census and Inventory 



A REPORT 



TO 



Hon. CHARLES S. WHITMAN 
Governor of the State of New York 



1917 



ALBANY 

J. B. LYON COMPANY, PRINTERS 

1918 



o. 






p. of D* 



CONTENTS 



1 . Summary 5 

2. The Plan of Compilation 13 

3. Tlie Problem of the State 26 

4. The Problem of Xew York City 33 

5. The Cenfsus Office 69 

C. Financial Statement 73 

7. Appendix 77 

[3j 



REPORT 



Honorable Ciiaeles S. Vv'iiitmak", Governor' of the State of New 
York: 

SiK. — The jSTew York State Military Census and Inventory, 
conceived and ordered by you, has been, in accordance with your 
instructions, organized, taken, coded, tabulated and deposited in 
the place assigned to it in the State Capitol at Albany ready for 
use. 

It is proper that a report of this undertaking should be made to 
you, and the following summary of the work accomplished and 
the expense incurred by the State under chapters 103 and 409 of 
the Laws of 1917, are therefore presented to you for your 
consideration. 

In the early part of the year 1917, you appointed George Garr 
Henry, of New York city. Director of the State Military Census 
and Inventory, and commissioned him captain in the Adjutant- 
General's Department, the census being a part of the military 
preparation of the State to assist the nation in the conduct of the 
war against Germany. 

You signed the census bill, chapter 103, passed by the Legis- 
lature March 5, on March 29, 1917. Captain Henry at once pro- 
ceeded to organize the necessary staff for carrying out this work. 
His task was a difficult one, inasmuch as he had no precedents 
to go by, no similar enterprise to use as a model. I^o state in 
the United States had ever taken such a census. The Federal 
govermnent furnished no example to be followed. ISFothing 
existed which might act as a guide, except the similar work of 
European nations, which was of little use in view of the fact 
that conditions existing on the other side of the Atlantic were so 
greatly at variance with the conditions existing in iSTew York 
State. 

At the same time, also, there existed in many quarters within 
the State itself and in Washington a distinct feeling of doubt as 
to whether the immense labor and expense of taking and prepar- 
ing such a census were worth the returns which might be reason- 

[5] 



6 XeW YoKIC StA'I'E 

ubly expected from it. It must, therefore, be a source of satis- 
faction to you, now, to know that this census has already more 
than paid for itself. 

The task of persuading 5,600,000 men and women to answer the 
eighty odd questions within the space of fifteen days was alone 
a difficult and unprecedented one. But in the case of New York 
State the city of JN'ew York presented problems not existing in 
any other State in the Union. The port of New York with its 
transitory population presented a unique problem; the city of 
New Y^'ork, with its hundreds of thousands of inhabitants who 
neither speak nor write the English language was another prob- 
lem, not to the same extent existant elsewhere. The cities, towns 
and villages of the State presented less difficult, but quite differ- 
ent problems, requiring a general plan of organization sufficiently 
flexible to admit of a census taking that should work in harmony 
with the conditions in New York city. 

Captain Henry, realizing the problem as a whole, at once pro- 
ceeded to gather around him in Albany the leading experts in card 
coding and tabulation, for the purpose of deciding the smallest 
number of questions which the citizens of the State should be 
asked to answer and which at the same time should once for all 
furnish the information that the State, or the Federal govern- 
ment, might wish to be possessed of for the successful prosecution 
of the war, 

lie first consulted army and navy officers and secured from 
them the heartiest support and greatest assistance. Major-General 
Leonard Wood's advice was especially valuable, not only in his 
whole-hearted support of the plan, but in the specific suggestions 
which he made in regard to the information that would be needed. 

Captain Henry then consulted Mr, Arthur Hunter, President 
of the Actuarial Society of America — the leading expert in 
this country, or any other, in actuarial and medical statistics. 
Through the patriotic spirit of Mr. D. P. Kingsley, president of 
the New York Life Insurance Company, and of the directors 
of that company. Captain Leo II. McCall, Mr. John M. Gaines, 
Mr. F. D. Mack, Mr. 11. B. Tolen, Mr. E. D. Murphy, and 
Mr. C. A. O'Brien were released from the company, their salaries 
being continued meanwhile, in order that the State should have 
their voluntary assistance. These experts were assembled in 
Albany in the first days of April, 1917, and with untiring effort 
and enthusiasm they proceeded to tackle the problem at hand, 



Military Census and Invextoey 7 

imcler tlie direction of Cafttain Ileiiiy, to prepare the questions, 
plan the organization for taking the census, and the second organ- 
ization for coding, carding and tabulating the result thus obtained ; 
so, that the census might be assembled in such form that it would 
be of immediate and constant use. It was evident that the actual 
taking of a census of this magnitude, though difficult, would 
nevertheless be possible; but the point of greatest importance was 
to arrange it so that any kind of information could be secured 
from it immediately and without error. This has been accom- 
plished in such a form that the cards can now be sorted into any 
classification at the rate of 15,000 per hour, or 150,000 in a ten- 
hour day, by one machine. Six macliines can sort 1,000,000 cards 
a day. It is difficult to conceive the mngnitudo of this work. 
Something like 30,000,000 blanks, forms and pamphlets of one 
kind or another had to be printed and delivored to every corner 
of the State. 

It was found that an average of twenty minutes wns required 
by the ordinary person to fill out one of the census blanks, and 
in the case of iSTew York city carefully instructed assistants were 
necessary, people who could speak most of the languages of the 
earth as well as English, in order to help those who spoke no 
English. One hundred and eighty thousinid volunteer helpers 
were required to do this work, without pay, as no funds were 
availal)le from the State resources for such a purpose. If one 
]>lank was filled out every minute, it would have required four- 
teen years to complete the work; but the plan allowed only fifteen 
days. The task was immeasurably greater than the Federal draft, 
since though the total number was 5,600,000, as against 9,000,000 
for the draft, the information required on the State census blanks 
was ten times greater and infinitely more complex and personal. 

Captain Henry proceeded to organize tlie work, with your 
nnvarying encouragement and support. He took advantage of 
the 'County Home Defence Committees which you had nlready 
organized in each county of the State. A conference at Albany 
of these committees on April 16, 1917, furnished an opportunity 
for explaining the work which they were to do and helped to 
make the matter clear at the start. 

The plan placed the responsibility of the census t;iking in each 
county upon the county committees. Each county committee 
in turn organized local committees, which again in turn organ- 
ized registration district committees. The unit of the smallest 



8 Xew Yokk State 

area was the registration district, aud 'uuder tlie law every resi- 
dent of the State, male and female, between the ages of 16 and 50, 
was required to come to his or her registration booth within the 
days set for the census taking, and to answer all questions upon 
the census blanks. In the case of New York city, where more 
than half the people of the State must register — specifically, 
3,280,870 out of 5,600,000 — Mayor Mitchel's committee 
already existing, undertook the work of registration with 
Mr. E. P. Goodrich, of the Bureau of Municipal Eesearch, as 
the direct head of the military census for the city. 

Each county was allowed to decide for itself whether the census 
should be taken from the registration booths or by house to house 
canvass; and they proceeded to organize and enlist the voluntary 
assistance of the required number of men and women to act as 
registrars, managers of registration depots, and so on. It will 
be a source of pride to the |)eople of this State to know that 
approximately 180,000 volunteers — men and women — for two 
weeks served their State faithfully and voluntarily, not only 
without pay, but in many cases at great expense to themselves, to 
make this military census the extraordinarily complete and useful 
record that it is. 

By May 1st, the plans, for taking the census and coding it were 
ready. At that time, or shortly before (April 18th) you received 
a communication from Washington requesting that the State 
census should be delayed until, the Eederal draft, then being dis- 
cussed in Congress, shoul'di be completed. This action caused 
about one month's delay, but the time was used to great advantage 
for completing all the minor deta^ils of the work, so that no diffi- 
culties which might arise should delay or nullify the completion 
of the task. Meantime, on May 7th, the Legislature, at your 
suggestion, passed chapter 409, which made it comimlsory for all 
people between the ages of 16, and 50 to register under the State 
census, and which imposed legal penalties upon those who failed 
to do so. 

Following your proclamation of June 6th — the day after the 
Federal draft — announcing the dates for the military census, 
the work was continued; and between June 11th and 25th, inclu- 
sive, approximately 5,600;000 men and women registered peace- 
fully, and quietly, without trouble of any appreciable kind, and 
practically without the necessity for inflicting penalties anj-^vhere 
in the State. 



Military Cknsus and Inventory 9 

For the next few weeks, the county committees went busily 
10 work gathering iu the hundreds of thousands of bhmks, 
grouped in the main classilication of male, female and age, and 
gradually these were shipped to the Census Bureau in I^Tew York 
city. 

It had been at lirst planned to carry out the work of coding, 
typing, punching and tabulating in Albany at the Census Bureau, 
but it became evident early in the conduct of the enterprise that 
the city of Albany could not furnish the expert card coders and 
punchers, all of whom would have to be brought from I^ew York 
city. Furthermore, the fact that uj) wards of 800 clerks would 
be required in addition to these experts, made it evident that the 
IN'ew York city labor market could more easily and quickly fur- 
nish these people. Through the efforts of Mr. F. D. Mack, the 
city donated three floors in the building at 49 Lafayette street, 
at a rental of one dollar per year for this work, and the offices 
of the Military 'Census Bureau were, therefore, transferred there 
in early July, and closed altogether in Albany, by August 1st, in 
order to save money. 

The work of coding the blanks, tj'pewriting the name and 
address of each of the 5,600,000 names on a separate card, the 
punching of these cards, and the final tabulating of them, was 
begun at once by these 800 or more clerks, under the direction of 
Captain Mc'Call and his assistants. In order to reduce the cost 
"U<herever possible, petitions were sent out to business organiza- 
tions in the city, asking them to send, as their contrilmtion, units 
of three clerks to serve one or two weeks. The response to this 
petition was encouraging. In many cases instead of sending the 
clerks, the business organzations sent their checks to pay for their 
quota. 

In spite of this patriotic spirit, however, and generous as it 
was, the payroll amounted to approximately $1,000 per day for 
three months. The necessity for this large force can readily be 
understood when it is realized that each of the 5,000,000 blanks 
and cards had to be handled eight or nine times at least, in addi- 
tion to the verifying process attending each step. 

The work was somewhat complicated by the requests that came 
in constantly from the different branches of the Federal govern- 
ment, from departments of the Army and l^avy in Washington 
and in ISTew York City, from the British Commission, the Canadian 
government, and the various State departments of ISTew York and 



10 Xkw Yokk State 

other stiites, asking for lists of all the various dassifications made 
available by the census and obtainable nowhere else. Work had 
to stop from time to time in order that this material might be 
gotten out, not only because the men in charge desired to give 
immediate answers to all legitimate requests, but also because 
they acted in obedience to your explicit instructions that all such 
requests should be honored at once. 

In no instance were more than forty-eight hours required to 
answer any request of this sort, until late in September, when the 
time for packing the blanks and cards for shipment to Albany 
arrived, and they wore, therefore, temporarily not accessible. 

On Sei)tember 2Gth a detachment of the New York State Guard 
under Col. .T. AV. Myers, acting under Adjutant-General Sherrill's 
instructions, began the movement of the original blanks to the 
arsenal in i^ew York for temporary safekeeping. This was com- 
pleted on October 5th. and on October 8th the State troops started 
upon the work of transporting the cards in their steel cases to 
barges in the Xoi-th river, whence they were towed to Alliany and 
placed in the C'apitol on October IGth, ready for use. The work 
of getting out information in response to the large number of 
inquiries which had accumulated since September 20th was at 
once begun, and is now proceeding. 

During the month of September, the Division of Co-operation i)f 
States of the Council of National Defense at AVashington, of which 
Mr. George F. Porter is the head, took up the question of the 
advisability of suggesting to the various States of the Union that 
they take such a census. It has become more and more evident that 
the nation as a nation must have some such military census and 
inventory of all the people of the United States. As a iirst step in 
this matter, Mr. Giiford, of the Council of National Defense, 
through Mr. Porter, approached you and asked you to recommend 
an expert Avho should go to Washington and assist the Government 
in the preparation of such a plan. You recommended Mr. John 
M. Gaines, and he is now at work upon this matter in Washington, 
with all the records of the New York census at his disposal. 

The work of all those who patriotically volunteered their services 
for this immense task is beyond praise ; but the task which Captain 
Henry carried out and the spirit which he enthused into his willing 
helpers stands out pre-eminently. His tragic death on Inly 4th, 
on the polo field at Morristown, N. J., cut short his services to the 
State; but he had completed all the great work of organizing the 



Military Ct;.\si's axd Taventoky 11 

census, had finished the task of actually taking it and had pre- 
pared the machinery for coding, typing, punching and tabulating 
it. What Avas left to be done was but the carrying out of his plans. 

The financial aspect of this work is interesting and worthy of 
your special attention. The bill of March 5th appropriated 
$150,000 for the taking of the census and empowered you to receive 
such voluntary subscriptions as might be necessary to complete 
the work. This sum was used, and the State Defense Council 
appropriated $55,000 additional from funds in its hands for such 
military purposes as it should deem advisable. In addition to this, 
the sum of approximately $22,000 was voluntarily contributed by 
patriotic men of ISlew York City to complete the work. The total 
cost of the military census was $227,000, or approximately four 
cents per person — a figure which is probably lower than the 
cost of any other census ever taken in any State of the United 
States. There was an additional charge of approximately $30,000 
for the purchase of the steel filing cases in which the blanks and 
the cards are to be permanently maintained ; but as this is a 
maintenance charge it cannot properly be included as a part of the 
cost of the taking of the census itself. 

The whole task required a period of approximately five months 
(the month of ^Fay not being computed, since the matter was 
delayed during that month awaiting the taking of the Federal 
draft). Much labor could have been saved if Captain Henry had 
known in the beginning that a Federal di"aft was to be taken of 
men between the ages of 21 and 30; but in March no one could 
have foreseen this. 

The work is completed and the census is in actiuil use. The 
State is to be congratulated on the foresight which realized the 
necessity for such an act of preparation. 

This census will be of use in an indefinite number of ways for 
approximately two years. It will then become out of date. It is 
perhaps therefore proper to offer to you the suggestion that you 
consider the advisability of making this census permanent by keep- 
ing it up to date. Two purposes would thus be served; i. e., the 
most complete census and inventory ever taken in this country is 
at hand, prepared primarily for use during the war ; but its use 
would be inestima])le after the war in the period of reconstruction 
and readjustment which will be inevitable. Furthermore, it 
would, if maintained, obviate the necessity for the taking of cen- 
suses periodically in the future, and it would do away with the 



12 'New York State 

necessity for several detailed censuses on special subjects whicli 
are now a constant charge upon the State, 

It would seem that a method of keeping the State military census 
up to date might be devised by using the immense but scattered 
machinery now existant for acquiring vital statistics throughout 
the State, under the plan of transmitting duplicate information to 
a central census bureau in Albany upon all such details wherever 
obtained within the State. 

In view of the many technical points comiected with the different 
parts of the census, it is proper to submit to you more detailed 
reports of some of the special problems which presented them- 
selves to the organizers. The technical tabulation is of great 
importance. The immense problem of handling N^ew York City 
is also of vital significance. The methods followed by the county 
Home Defense committees cover another point, and it is proper 
that a somewhat detailed financial report should be added. There 
rare, therefore, appended to this report for your consideration, 
abstracts of these special problems which are, with what has 
already been written above, herewith respectfully submitted, sir, 
to you. 

J. H. SEARS,* 

Director, 

Albany, i^. Y., October 20, 1917. 



*Appointed to succeed Captain G. G. Henry. 



Military Census and Inventory ' 13 



II. THE PLAN OF COMPILATION 

When Captain Henry became Director of Census it was agreed 
that the most up-to-date devices in existence be employed in carry- 
ing on the work. He accordingly called into conference the repre- 
sentatives of two companies which make a specialty of manufac- 
turing electrical sorting and tabulating machines, such as had 
previously been used in census work, in the life insurance com- 
panies, in railroad offices and in large department stores. These 
experts in the tabulation of statistics, although rivals in business, 
gave their seiwices gladly to the State of New York and helped in 
every way to make the compilation of the census a success. 

Before the plans for the compilation of the census could be 
made, it was necessary to determine what would be the nature of 
the statistics desired by the militaiy authorities. The group of 
experts already mentioned first prepared, under the Director's 
instructions, a questionnaire which covered all the vital points 
based upon their previous experience of what would be of value to 
the State and the Federal Government. In this work they had for 
their guidance a statement of what had been done in Great Britain 
in connection with the tabulation of men eligible for military duty. 

After this questionnaire had been prepared, it was submitted to 
the Adjutant-General of the State of New York and also to the War 
Department at Washington for criticism and suggestions. With 
help from these and other sources a blank was perfected which, 
when answered by each individual, would give information regard- 
ing the availability of men for military service or for work neces- 
sary for the prosecution of the war, as well as information regard- 
ing the availability of women for the various kinds of work to 
which they were best adapted. Provision was also made on the 
blank to determine the resources of the State with respect to mules, 
horses, hea^y wagons, automobiles, heavy trucks, motor launches, 
power boats and wireless outfits. 

In studying the questions which were used, it should be borne 
in mind that the tabulation was desired quickly, and that as many 
persons did not speak English, it was necessary to make the ques- 
tions simple, definite and clear. Additional information could be 
obtained at a later date from the individuals themselves, if that 
became necessary. 



1-1 ISTew York State 

All residents of the State of New York from the ages of 16 to 
50 were required to fill out the questionnaire."' When the work 
was first planned it was expected that the State would be asked to 
give a list of the men available for the draft, and accordingly one 

"'The Questioxxaire for Males. 
do not wpite in this margin 

Election Cistrict SnMlYlsion Town or City ConntF 




STATE OF NEW YORK 

THE ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE 

MILITARY CENSUS BUREAU 
ALBANY 



Census and Inventory of the Military Resources of the State under Chapter 103, Laws 

of 1917, and Acts Supplementary Thereto, and Enrollment of Persons Liable 

to Service in the Militia under Chapter 41, Laws of 1909, and Acts 

Amendatory Thereof (Military Law) by Order and 

Direction of the Governor 



Form [or Males 16 to 50 Years of Age Inclusiye. Use Pen and M. Sign Personally, Do M Foil 

1. How old aro you? (a) When wore you born? (yearl (month) (day) 

2. What is your full namp? 

3. In what city, town or village do you live? (a) On what street, road or avenue? 

(b) On what rural free delivery route? (c) House number? 

4. Were you born in the United States? 5. In what country were you born? 

6. Are you white or colored? 7, How long have you lived in the United 

States? - 

8. How long have you lived in the State of New York?-_ 

9. Are you a citizen of the United States? (a) By birth or by naturalization? 

(b) When were you naturalized? 

10. If not a citizen, have you taken out your first 11. Of what country are you a citizen or sub- 
papers? Ject 

12. In what country was your father born? ^... 1.3. In what country was your mother born? _ 

14. Are you married? - (a) Is your wife living? _ 

15. How many per.sons, including only mother, father, wife, or child, sister or brother under 12 
years of age are dependent upon you for their entire support?.— 

16. Have you attended elementary school? (a) High school? _ 

(b) Technical school?.- (c) College?.- — 

17. Do you speak English? (a) What other language do you speak? 

(b) Have you ever acted as interpreter of (c) If so, what language? 

any foreign language? 

IS. Do you hold any public office or position under the National or State Government? 

(a) If so, what?.- 

19. In what industry, or business are you engaged? _ 



(a) In what capacity or position?.— (b) Exactly what work do you do? 



20. Have you a trade or profession? (a) If so, what is it? 

(b) If not, what work do you do for a living? 

21. In what other kind of work have you had most e.xperience? _ 

22. Are you particularly skillful in any line of mechanical work? 

(a) If so, what line? 

23. Are you in business for yourself? 



Military Census and Inventory 



15 



set of l)lan]vs eovereJ men from 21 to 30 years of age, and was 
printed in red, in order that it mio-ht be readily segregated from 
the others. The Federal draft, however, made this work 
imneeessarv. 



24. If not, what is the name of your present employer? 

(a) What Ls your employer's business? (b) What is your employer's business address? 



25. Have you ever acted as agent or otherwise for any foreign country, manufacturer, dealer, or 
merchant? ; 

26. Have you ever been in the military or naval service, or had military or naval training at school, 
college, camp or cruise? 



(a) In wliat organizations? 


(b) Date of 
enlistment? 


(c) Date of 
discharge? 


(d) In what 
grade? 

































27. Are you now in the military or naval service? .._ (a) In what organization? 

28. Do you claim exemption from military service? (a) If so, upon what ground? 



29. Do you desire to enlist in the United States Army? (a) The United States Navy? 

(b) The U. S. Marine Corps?._ (c) The New York National Guard? 

(d) The New York Naval Militia? „ 

30. For what particular arm or branch of the military service do you believe yourself to be best 
fitted? 

31. Can you operate: (a) An automobile? (b) A motorcycle?.- 

(c) A power boat? (d) An aeroplane? 

(e) A telegraph instrument?. (f) A wireless outfit? 

(g) A stationary steam engine? (h) A steam locomotive? - 

32. Have you ever been employed in shipbuilding? (a) In what capacity?.. 

33. Are you a licensed pilot? (a) Navigator?— 

34. Do you own any of the following? If so, how many of each? 



PROPERTY 


How many 


PROPERTY 


How many 


Automobiles 




Hea\o- wagons or trucks 




Auto trucks 


. .. . 1 


Wireless outfits 




Motor launches 


' 


Draft horses 




Power boats 




Saddle horses 




Rifles 




Mulrs 




Vans 









I hereby declare that the foregoing answers are true, 

[Sign here name in full] 



[Do not fill in] 
Enrollment taken and card issued by 



(First name) (Middle name) (Last name) 



Aijeiit, MUilanj Census 



16 ^Ew YoKK State 

The list of questions and the order in which they were listed 
required weeks of study in order that the greatest amount of accu- 
rate infoiTaation might be secured with a minimum of trouble and 
misunderstanding. 

Age 

The most important factor was age, and in order that this might 
be checked the first requirement was the exact date of birth. 

The Questionnaiee eor Females. 

do not write in th i g margin 

Election District SnIiiliTision Town or City County 




STATE OF NEW YORK 

THE ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE 

MILITARY CENSUS BUREAU 
ALBANY 



Census and Inventory of the Military Resources of the State under Chapter 103, Laws 

of 1917, and Acts Supplementary Thereto, and Enrollment of Persona Liable 

to Service in the Militia under Chapter 41, Laws of 1909, and Acts 

Amendatory Thereof (Military Law) by Order and 

Direction of the Governor 



Fori ror Females 16 to 50 Years of Age Inclnsiye. Use Pen aM M. Sign Personally. Do Not Fold 

1. How old are you? _ (a) When were you born? (year) (month) (day) 

2. What is your full name? 

3. In what city, town or village do you live? (a) On what street, road or avenue? 

(b) On what rural free delivery route? (c) House number?— _. 

4. Were you born in the United States? 5. In what county were you born? _ 

6. Are you white or colored? 7. How long have you lived in the United 

States? 

8. How long have you lived in the State of New York? 

9. Are you a citizen of the United States? (a) By birth or by naturalization?— 

(b) When were you naturalized? 

10. If not a citizen, have you taken out your 11. Of what country are you a citizen or sub- 
first papers? ject? 

12. In what country was your father born? 13. In what country was your mother born? _ 

14. Are you married? (a) Is your husband living?— _. 

(b) What is your husband's full name? _. 

15. In what country was your husband born? (a) Is he a citizen of the United States? 

(b) Of what country is he a citizen or subject? _ 

16. How many children have you?. 17. How many persons, including only mother, 

father, or child, sister or brother under 12 years of age are dependent upon you for their entire 
support? _ 

18. Have you attended elementary school? _ (a) High school? 

(b) Technical school?— (c) College? _ 

19. Do you speak English? (a) What other language do you speak? 

(b) Have you ever acted as interpreter of (c) If so, what language?..— 

any foreign language?.- 



Military Census and Inventory 



17 



Address 

The next point of importance was the address of each individual. 
As a further check and in order to readily locate the men and 
women of a given occupation, the name of the present employer, 
his address and business were called for by the blank. 

Country of birth 

If the individual was not born in the United States, he or she 
was requested to give his or her country of birth. This involved 



20. Do you hold any public office or position under the National or State Government?, 
(a) If so, what? _ 

21. Are you emploj'ed in any industry or business? 



(a) In what capacity or position? (b) Exactly what work do you do?._ 



221 In what other kind of work have you had most experience? 

23. Are you in business for yourself? 

24. If not, what is the name of your present employer? 

(a) What is your employer's business?- (b) What is your employer's business address?.. 



25. Are you a registered trained nurse?. (a) A practical nurse? 

(b) Have you had any experience in surgical (c) Have you completed a course of training in 

cases?.— First Aid? 

(d) Have you worked under the Red (e) Have you made hospital supplies? 

Cross? _ 

26. Can you: 

(a) Drive an automobile? (e) Operate a typewriter? 

(b) Operate telegraph instrument? (f) Do general clerical work? 

(c) Operate a telephone switchboard? (g) Do general agricultural work? 

(d) Take shorthand? (h) Make garments?- _ _ 

27. Do you own any of the following? If so, how many of each? 



PROPERTY 


How many 


PROPERTY 


How many 


Automobiles 

Auto trucks 




Heavy wagons or trucks 





Motor launches 

Power boats 


Saddle horses 

Mules 




Vans 







I hereby declare that the foregoing answers are true, 

[Sign here name in full] 



[Do not fill in] 
Enrollment taken and card issued by 



(First name) 



(Middle name) (Last name) 



Agent, Military Census. 



18 Xew Yortv State 

considerable discussion as to the countries which should be tabu- 
lated, and it will be seen from the form which countries were 
selected. For ob\'ious reasons, the length of time the individual 
had lived in the United States and the length of time he had been 
a resident of the State of iS^ew York was also required. 

Citizenship 

In connection with citizenship, the question was asked whether 
or not the individual was a citizen of the United States, and if so, 
whether by birth or naturalization. The date of naturalization 
was also required. If not a citizen, the question " Were first 
papers taken out ? " was to be answered. If not a citizen of the 
United States, the blank asked of what country the individual was 
a citizen or subject. It was recognized that the country did not 
exactly determine citizenship. There were persons born in Eng- 
land, France, Germany, etc., who were citizens of the United 
States because their parents were citizens of this country. 

Parents' birthplace 

In the event that the question of the country in which the par- 
ents were bom ever became a factor in determining a man's avail- 
ability for military service, it was decided to insert a question 
'covering the parents' birthplace. 

Availability for military service 

It should be borne in mind that this census was primarily a 
military census, and that being so it was important to detennine 

Election District SnDdivision 

Town or City Conniy 

STATE OF NEW YORK 
iltUtarg CflPttBus atib Jnuptttory uf 191 T 

BY COMMAND OF THE GOVERNOR 

OJl|ia dprttfira that the bearer whose signature appears 

on the line following 

Name 

Residence 

has been enrolled in the Census and Inventory of Military Resources 
of the State. 

NOT TRANSFERABLE 

County Director of Census 

by 

Agent 

The Requisition Card 
{Facsimile) 




Military Census and Ixventoky 19 

the imuiber of clependeiits iu eacli individual ease. Accordingly a 
question was embodied in the blank to show whether or not a man 
was married, whether or not his wife was living and how many 
persons including father, mother, wife or children, sister or 
brother were entirely dependent upon him for support. 

Education 

The educational section of the census was divided into four 
parts, those who had attended (1) Elementary School (2) High 
School (3) Technical School (4) College. This was intended to 
enable the authorities quickly to segregate those who had technical 
etlucation. 

Languag^es 

As a knowledge of languages was of value to the military 
authorities, the blank was so arranged that those who either spoke 
another language than English, or those who had acted as inter- 
preters of any foreign language, could be tabulated separately. 

Trades, occupations or professions 

In order to determine the availability of residents of iSTew York 
State for military service, it was necessary not only to ascertain 
their trades, occupations or professions, but to find out as well 
whether they held any public office under the National or State 
governments which would exempt them from conscription. 

Former occupations 

It was deemed desirable to ascertain the exact nature of the 
trades or callings formerly followed ; since it might easily happen 
that a man now following an occupation which was not essential to 
the prosecution of the war might have had training in some other 
trade which would make him a very valuable man for military 
service. A tabulation of the occupational section of the census is 
■ an exceedingly difficult one and accordingly the questions had to be 
framed with great care. The magnitude of this work can best be 
judged from the fact that the Federal Census Bureau prepared a 
list of 1Y,000 occupations and suboccupations in connection with 
the census of 1910, but only one-third of the cases came directly 
within this lengthy list. In the case of the present census, the 
exact occupations in many instances were not of special interest to 
the Government ; many of them were grouped ; others were handled 
individually, because they seemed of vital importance to the State 
in time of war. 



20 'Nnw YoKK State 

Foreign business connections 

The question was asked, " Have you ever acted as agent or 
otlier^'ise for any foreign country, dealer or merchant ? " The 
purpose of this question was two-fold, first, to obtain a list of men 
who had had experience in business dealings with other countries, 
since their services in that case would be of great value to the 
United States ; and second, to obtain a list of foreigners who might 
endeavor to keep up secret relations with the enemy country. 

Military or naval service 

Every man between the ages of 16 and 50 was asked to give an 
account of his military or naval service, military or naval training 
at school, college or on cruise. He was also asked to state whether 
he desired to enlist in the United States Army, ISTavy, Marine 
Corps, JSTational Guard or JSTaval Militia. This list has been used 
extensively already by the government. 

Accomplishments 

Under this heading were recorded persons who were able to 
drive automobiles, manage power boats, run steam engines or sta- 
tionary engines and also those who could use a telegraph instru- 
ment or a wireless outfit. 

Special occupations 

The Federal Government was anxious to obtain men who were 
schooled in shipbuilding and those who were navigators or pilots. 
Accordingly all men were asked if they had ever been employed 
in shipbuilding, and if so, in what capacity, and if they were navi- 
gators or licensed pilots. 

If the census were to be taken again, a number of changes would 
be made. Greater details of certain occupations would be required 
and the willingness of the workers in certain occupations to be 
transferred to another section of the country would be determined. 
Furthermore, if any other state now wished to take a similar 
census, much of this could be eliminated because the Federal 
Registration has given information on men from 21 to 30. 

Women 

The principal information desired from women was along the 
same line as that for men, with regard to age, residence, national- 
ity,, citizenship, place of emplo\Tnent, education and knowledge 
of foreign languages. 



Military Census and Inventoky 21 

With regard to tkeir availability for military service, however, 
different information was desired. They were asked whether they 
were registered nurses, practical nurses, had had experience in 
surgical cases, had comj)leted courses in training in first aid, 
had worked under the Red Cross, or had made hospital supplies. 
Information was also required as to their ability to drive auto- 
mobiles. 

As there was great demand in commercial and government 
departments for the services of women, it was deemed advisable 
to obtain information as to the number who could operate type- 
writing machines, take shorthand, operate telephone switchboards 
or telegraphic instruments, or do general telegraphic work. 

At the time the census was taken it was evident that there would 
be a demand for women able to do agricultural work and sewing 
for the soldiers and sailors and the destitute in Europe. Infor- 
mation was accordingly obtained on these subjects. 

Method of compilation 

In all tabulations of this nature the main idea to be kept in 
mind is that the different groups may be tabulated and compiled 
as quickly as possible. The system, therefore, must be so elastic 
that a large number of compilations may be made with as little 
sorting of cards as possible. Furthermore in order to avoid errors, 
the work should be largely mechanical. A system of coding, " there- 
fore, had to be devised, because writing information in longhand 
on the cards and sorting by hand was not practical when 5,600,000 
cards were involved, which had to be divided into hundreds of 
groups and subgroups. 

The system in use at the present time for accomplishing the 
compilation of statistics rapidly is based upon two ideas : 

The translation into codes of the data which has been 
gathered. 

The transfer of the coded information to cards by means 
of perforating machines, thereby making it possible to use 
electric sorting and tabulating devices. 

Vital information from records 

It may readily be seen from the questions in the blanks that a 
large amount of valuable information might be obtained, if a 
proper system vrere installed for producing such a tabulation 



* See appendix, page 77. 



22 New York State 

quickly and inexpensively. A complete list, for example, could 
be obtained from the records of those who could make hospital 
supplies. Or if the government decided to mobilize women who 
had experience in agricultural work, their names would be avail- 
able, as Avould also be the names and addresses of men experi- 
enced in navigation. If information were desired in regard to 
any particular resources of the State, whether mules, horses, or 
motors, etc., the names and addresses of the owners of such 
resources would be available. 

Perforated cards 

The simplest way to explain the method used in compiling the 
statistics is to give samples of the cards used. 

Under the heading of age, appear, two columns of figures each 
running from to 9. If the 2 in the first column were perforated 
by a machine and the 4 in the second column, these would stand 
for age 2-i; but if the 4 were perforated in the first column and 
the 2 in the second, that would stand for age 42. As the card 
consists principally of figures from to 9. it is evident that where 
figures cannot be employed a code must be prepared which will 
record postoffice, nationality, occupation, military experience, etc., 
by means of figures. For example 01 might represent "Born in 
the United States.-' 02 — " Born in the United States Territories 
and Possessions,"' Oo — "Born in England," 04 — "Born in 
Ireland," etc. 

The number re])rcscntcd by the code is placed opposite each 
question on the l)lank, duly checked, and then handed to the clerk 
who perforates the card on a perforating machine. 

There are two methods of insuring accuracy of the work of card 
perforating. By the first method cards may be perforated iu 
duplicate from the original record by two clerks using different 
machines and they may then be compared by holding the cards 
together to see whether the perforations have been made in identi- 
cally the same place. It is customary to have the two sets of cards 
in different colors, so as to facilitate checking, to avoid errors, and 
to enable the data to be filed in two ways. It may be advisable to 
keep one set filed according to names for reference, while the 
other set is used for statistical purposes. By the second metho'l 
— the one adopted by the New York State Military Census — 
only one card is perforated. The card is then taken to a per- 
forator, along with the original record. The perforator passes th.e 



Military Census akd Inventoky 23 

card into a iiiacliiiie which looks like a perforating machine and 
which is operated in the same manner, but which does not perfo- 
rate. If the perforation does not already exist in the proper place, 
the machine "locks'' when the key is struck and thus the error is 
located. 

Whichever method is used it is customary to take samples out of 
the completed cards and have them checked anew against the 
original record by a responsible pei-feon. 

After the cards are prepared the sorting is done by a machine 
which will sort the cards in any column at the rate of 15,000 per 
hour. If_, for example, it were decided to tabulate all the men in 
Xew York from ages 10 to 49, according to age, the cards first 
would be sorted by the first column under age. The names from 
16 to 19, from 20\o 29, from 30 to 39, and from 40 to 49 would 
appear in these four groups. The cards in any of these groups 
would then be sorted according to the second column. For 
example, all those from 20 to 29 woukl l>e put in the machine and 
the machine would then divide them into ages from 20, 21, 22, etc., 
up to 29. If they were then to be divided into the four education 
groups, the machine would be set so as to divide them according to 
the figures 1, 2, 3, 4 in the twelfth colunm of the card. Thus, the 
men from ages 20 to 29 would be divided according to whether 
their education was elementaiy, high school, technical school or 
college. 

Havine; made such divisions as are desired a summarv of the 
cards may be made in each group by another machine. For this 
purpose a sj^ecial machine was constructed by the Tabulating 
Machine Company, making it possible in one operation to obtain 
a summary of the "accomplishments" of either men or women. 
If, for example, all the cards were passed through this tabulating 
machine it would be known how many men could run automobiles, 
power boats, wireless outfits, stationary engines or locomotives, etc. 

Codes used in compiling' census data 

The first two columns of the post-office code covered the county, 
so that the cards could be sorted according to county. The second 
two figures in the code covered cities, towns and villages, etc. 

The English speaking countries were generally under code num- 
bers to 09, other European allies, from 10 to 18, pro-German 
countries from 30 to 36, neutrals from 40 to 46, etc. The pur- 
pose of this grouping was to facilitate the recording of the resi- 
dents of New York State by birthplace. If it was desired to know 



24 l^Ew YoKK State 

the names of all persons who were bom in the countries allied 
with Germany, they could be obtained under the numbers 30 to 36, 
or if it seemed advisable to obtain the names of all the young un- 
married men born in England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Canada 
and N'ewfoundland, Australia, ISTew Zealand, South Africa, India 
and Egypt, it was only necessary to obtain the cards with code 
numbered 03 to 09 inclusive. 

The code for foreign languages was: 1, French; 2, German; 3, 
French and German; 4, Spanish; 5, Italian; 6, Russian; 7, 
Japanese; 8, all other languages except English. 

Occupation 

At the time the census was planned there seemed to be five 
categories of occupation which should be kept separate: 

1. Farmers, stock raisers, millers, fishermen and others who 
were necessary to the food supply of the country. 

2. Federal and State employees who were exempt from military 
service and navy yard, arsenal, armory, shipbuilding and other 
employees who should not be disturbed in their work. Another 
group of the same kind were the men engaged in the extraction of 
the minerals from the earth, such as iron, copper, lead and zinc; 
also the agricultural machinery makers whose work was so neces- 
sary in the feeding of the world. 

3. Men who were required for the army, such as bakers, horse- 
shoers, cooks, hostlers, harness .makers and tent makers. 

4. Employees of factories whose work was likely to be of 
value to the prosecution of the war and the feeding of the people. 

5. Those whose occupations were such as could be filled by 
others and were not essential to the country during war time. 

A code was prepared which covered the service in the Regular 
Army, ISTavy, Marine corps, ISTational Guard (showing the 
particular branch of service, whether infantry, cavalry, engineer 
corps, ambulance corps, veterinary corps, etc.), and arrangements 
were also made under this particular heading to show whether or 
not these men liad served in foreign countries. Their names were 
kept in such a way that they were readily available. The code 
also covered training at school, college, camp or on cruise. As it 
was also desired to know which of the residents had served in 
foreign countries arrangements were made whereby these cards 
with this information might very rapidly be separated. 



Military Ce-s^sus and Inykntoky 25 

Organization of force 

The arduous and important work of getting a force to code the 
information called for on the blanks, to perforate the cards and to 
attend to the sorting and tabulation was under the charge of Cap- 
tain Leo H. McCall. On account of the large number of cases, 
about 5,600,000, and the speed with which the work had to be com- 
pleted_, it was necessary to engage a large force of 750 to 800 
clerks. The work of engaging the rooms, buying the necessary 
supplies, engaging the clerical help was done by Captain McCall, 
with the assistance of E. D. Murphy, Henry Brown, W. Rohlifs, 
and Edmund Mimne, all of the staff of the New York Life Insur- 
ance Company. The w^ork of training the clerks in the use of the 
codes and of carrying on the sorting and tabulating was under the 
charge of William Macf arlane and J. M. Gaines. The complexity 
of this w^ork camiot be realized without a knowledge of the difficul- 
ties, especially with regard to the occupations. 

It had been the intention to ask the various companies in jSTew 
York which used electrical tabulating devices to loan the services 
of their clerks to the State. While a number of them agreed to do 
this, the greater proportion of the employers were so busy that it 
was impossible to carry on the work by volunteer force. 

Medical census 

Under the direction of Dr. Karl Connell a separate census of 
physicians and surgeons of the State of Ifew York was made. 
The work of tabulation was done by the clerical force of the 
Bureau, the technical part of the work being under the expert 
•^idance of Mr. William Macfarlane. 

The work of the Bureau has demonstrated that a very large 
volume of cases could be handled expeditiously when plans are 
carefully laid at the beginning. It has shown that the modern 
method of compilation and tabulation is superior to any of the 
old methods, especially when there are many subdivisions to be 
made. It has also proved the necessity for such tabulation during 
war times, as the Bureau was able to give considerable informa- 
tion of value to many departments of the State and the Federal 
government for war uses. 

ARTHUR HUNTER, 

Actuary. 



26 New Yokk State 



III. THE PROBLEM OF THE STATE 

The original legal authority for the taking of the Xew York 
Military 'Census and Inventory is contained in cha})ter 103 of 
the Laws of 1917, which became a law on March 2r>, 1917. In 
this it was provided that " the Governor is hereby authorized to 
cause a census and inventory of resources of the State, available 
for use in the event of war, to be taken forthwith ; and the 
information thereby secured shall be placed at the service of both 
the State and Federal governments." Supplementary legislation 
was passed on May 7th in chapter 409 of the Laws of 1917, 
authorizing the Governor to prescribe the questions which might 
be asked concerning military resources and to regulate in a 
general way the manner in which the census should be taken, 
and also i:)ro\'iding for tlie appointment of a Director of Census 
in each county outside the city of. Xew York and a Director of 
Census for Greater jS"ew York. The Governor also made use of 
the provisions of the Military Law (Consol. Laws, chap. 3(5, § 2), 
for ordering an enrollment to be made of all persons liable to 
service in the State militia, simultaneously with the taking of 
the census and inventory. 

Proclamation of the governor 

Acting under authority conferred by the al)ove acts, the Gov- 
ernor, by his proclamation of June 0, 1917. designated June 11 
to June 25, 1917, as the period during which the census and 
inventory should be taken and the enrollment shoul<l l)e made. 
The proclamation was printed on posters and wide publicity was 
given to it by the press. Besides being printed in English, the 
posters were available in French. Yiddish, Hungarian, Italian, 
Gennan. Polish, Tiussian, Greek, Slavic, Swedish and Spanish. 
Counties having a large foreign population were supplied 
with foreign posters accordingly. The proclamation also defined 
the persons who should be required to register under the census 
and enroll for the purposes of the militia, prescribed that the 
census forms as approved by the Governor should be filled in and 
signed, contained provisions covering persons who through sick- 
ness or absence could not register in the regular way, and called 
attention to the penalties set by law for those who should refuse 



Military Census ajsd Inventory 27 

or neglect to register. On Jnne 8tli a set of regulations was 
ap2>roved by the Governor regarding the procedure to be followed 
in case it became necessaiy to enforce compliance with the law. 

The volunteers 

Partly for financial reasons and partly because it was felt that 
the enumeration of a free people by themselves should be done as 
much as possible by volunteer workers, it was decided to appeal 
to the people of the State to offer their services for this patriotic 
work which would be of such great value to the country and the 
State in the present emergency. The response was spontaneous 
and enthusiastic. Approximateh' 180,000 people of both sexes, 
of all political ])arties and of all stations in life, offered their time 
and services for periods ranging from a few hours to several weeks. 
The results accomplished constitute the highest tribute to the 
]>atriotism and the intelligence of our population. In apprecia- 
tion of the valuable services rendered, a certificate of thanks, 
bearing the State seal and signed by the Governor, was issued 
to each of these volunteers. Too much cannot l)e said in praise 
of the enthusiastic support of the women of the State, whose 
efficient worlv and untiring efforts were, to a very large extent, 
responsible for the successful completion of the census. Ileports 
from all over the State were unanimous in the praise of their 
w< irk. 

The method of taking the census and inventory 

In ])r('[):iring the plans for the taking of the census it was 
decided to decentralize the work as much as possible in order to 
give the organization the necessary elasticity to conform to the 
local conditions prevailing in various parts of the State. The 
counties were, therefore, chosen as the units, except in the case 
of the five counties foi'ming Greater jSTew York, which were con- 
sidered as one unit. The Home Defense Committees, which had 
recently ])con organized in every county, were charged with the 
duty of providing for the taking of the census, while in iSTew 
^ ork city the work was assumed by the Mayor's Committee on 
National Defense through the agency of the Bureau for ]\runici- 
pal Research. On May Tth, the Legislature passed an additional 
law (cha]). 409, Laws of 1917), supplementing chapter 103, and 
providing for the appointment of a director of census in each 
county outside of the city of jSTew York and a director of census 
for Greater Xew York, and of assistants to such directors, under 



28 ISTew Yokk State 

whom the immediate direction of the census and inventory was 
established and in whose hands were placed certain powers to- 
enforce compliance with the census laws. The powers of these 
directors were, nevertheless, stated to be subject to the control 
of the Governor or such military authority of the State as he 
should designate. These directors of census were appointed by 
the Governor upon the recommendation of the respective Home 
Defense 'Committees, and their oaths of office were filed in the 
office of the Secretary of State. In connection with the enroll- 
ment under the Military Law, the directors of census were also 
appointed as the enrollment officers provided for in the iSTew 
York State Military Law, and as such had charge of the enroll- 
ment. The census agents who were charged with the actual 
taking of the census were appointed by the Home Defense Com- 
mittees, and each was furnished by the Census Bureau wuth a 
small metal shield. 

At a meeting of representatives of the Home Defense Com- 
mittees from all over the State, held in Albany in the early part 
of April, the reasons for the taking of the census were explained 
and its purpose and uses were outlined. The regulations and 
instructions of the Military Census Bureau (that is to say, the 
State headquarters at Albany), were thereafter communicated 
through extensive correspondence to county headquarters and 
and by them to their smallest subdivisions. A large number of 
county representatives called from time to time at the Albany 
office for a discussion of the various problems which continu- 
ally developed, and these personal interviews proved so. valuable 
that it was decided to hold a general meeting for a final discus- 
sion of the rules and regulations, and particularly with regard 
to the legal aspects of the census. This general meeting was 
held June 1, 1017, in Albany. 

While the Military Census Bureau issued the necessary regu- 
lations and instructions to insure uniformity of results, the widest 
latitude was given the local authorities in the selection of the 
methods to be used and the means to be employed for the taking 
of the Cenfus. The City of ISTew York, with more than 50 per 
cent, of the population of the State, with its large foreign popu- 
lation and congested districts, presented the most complicated situ- 
tion. The Bureau for Municipal Research of this city decided to 
take the Census by means of registration depots, and in this con- 
nection arranged that residents of the city could register in any 



Military Census and Inventoey 29 

one of these depots. This arrangement, which was adopted as a 
conrenienee to the public, resulted in a certain amount of con- 
fusion during the first few days of registration, but thanks to the 
well planned local organization these diiSculties were soon over- 
come, and the results obtained in 'New York City greatly exceeded 
the expectations of the Census Bureau. In the other parts of the 
State the counties adopted either the house-to-house canvass or the 
registration depots, as seemed most desirable in view of local con- 
ditions. In some counties a combination of the two methods was 
used. 

Expenses 

The actual taking of the Census involved no expense to the State 
outside of printing, shipping expenses, postage and the expenses 
coincident with the maintenance of an office force at State head- 
quarters in Albany. The abstracting of the information contained 
in the answers on the 5,600,000 sigTied census forms and the 
preparation of a record which should be permanent and easily 
available for the benefit of the State and the iN^ation, involved, 
however, a large expenditure, chiefly for clerical help. The 
expenses incurred by the county organizations for rent, postage, 
traveling expenses and a certain amount of clerical labor were 
borne by the counties, and varied from a few hundred dollars to 
very considerable sums, in accordance with the size of the respec- 
tive counties and the number of inhabitants. Under the provisions 
of chapter 525 of the Laws of 1917, the county supervisors were 
authorized to appropriate out of county funds such sums as were 
considered necessaiy to defray the disbursements of the county's 
Home Defense Committee. 

Number of people registered 

Estimates prepared by the Military Census Bureau regarding 
the expected registration in each county were based on the State 
Census of 1915, plus an estimated increase in the population of 
3 per cent. Figures supplied by the Federal Census Bureau in 
Washington and the Actuarial Society of America sliowed that 
approximately 56 per cent, of the total population were between 
the ages of 16 and 50 years, inclusive, the age group adoptecJi 
as the basis of the census. The results obtained showed that during 
the last two years the drift of the population from the rural dis- 
tricts to cities had been in full swing, and, while the results in 
county districts fell below the estimates, the cities in practically 



30 Xew Yokk State 

every case exceeded the estimated figures, and the total registra- 
tion for the State as a whole slightly exceeded the estimate. The 
total number of persons registered exceeded 5,600,000. 

The law provided a penalty of not more than six months' impris- 
oimient for each refusal to answer the questions contained on tlie 
Census forms, or for failure to answer them fully, truthfully and 
without equivocation. It is a remarkable fact that, with a total 
registration of over 5,000,000 persons, only one conviction fur 
refusal to comply with the Census LaAvs was reported. 

Military enrollment 

To take advantage of the machinery created for taking the 
census, the Governor ordered that a simultaneous enrollment be 
made of all persons liable to service in the State Militia, under 
the power conferred on him by section 2 of the State Military 
Law. 

Under the Xew York Constitution (article XI, § 1) " all 
able-bodied male citizens between the ages of 18 and 45 years, who 
are residents of the State, shall constitute the Militia, subject, 
however, to such exemj)tions as are now, or may be hereafter 
created by the laws of the United States, or by the Legislature of 
this State." Prior to the 2-ith of May, 1917, the State Military 
Law (Consol. Laws, chap. 36, § 1), provided that "all able-bodied 
male citizens, between the ages of 18 and 45 years, who are resi- 
dents of this State, shall constitute the Militia," subject to certain 
specific exemptions given in detail. On that date, however, the 
Military Law as amended to provide (§1) that " the Militia of 
the State shall consist of that part of me militia of the United 
States resident within the State." The law further provides (§2) 
that, whenever the Governor shall deem it necessary, he may order 
an enrollment to be made of all persons liable to service in the 
militia and further provides that, in connection with enrollment, 
every person enrolled be served with a notice showing that he has 
been duly enrolled in the ^[ilitia of the State. In this enrolhnent, 
as in the Census and Inventory, the county was the unit, and the 
Director of Census of the county was also the county enrollment 
officer. Pursuant to the requirements of the law, a list was com- 
piled (one original and four copies) of all persons so enrolled, con- 
taining their full name and residence, their age, occupation and 
previous or existing military or naval sei-vice. The original of 
this list was to be forwarded to the Adjutant-General of the State, 



Military Ce.xsus axd Ixventoey 31 

hvo copies were delivered to the county clerks, one copy retained 
by the Eurollmeut OfEcer, aud the remaining copy was subdivided 
as to cities and toAvns; and there was sent to each city or towm 
clerk in each county the section of this copy of the list showing 
the persons residing in such city or town. Each person so enrolled 
was served with an enrollment notice at the time of making the 
enrollment. 

Under the ^Military ].aw (§ 3), persons enrolled who desire to 
claim exemption from service are required to present their claims 
in affidavit form to their county clerk, within fifteen days after 
receiving their enrollment notice, and the latter are required to 
grant exemptions if such persons are entitled to exemption accord- 
ing to law. The county clerks are required to transmit to the 
Adjutant-General of the State one of the enrollment lists received 
by them, as above stated, corrected to show who are exempt. The 
law provides (§3) that the persons thus enrolled and not exempted 
■* shall constitute the Militia of the State." As to who are properly 
exempt under the law, there was considerable question. Prior to 
the amendment of May 24, 1917, the Military Law (§ 1) had 
specified the classes of persons who could claim exemption. With 
the amendment of that section referred to above, however, whereby 
the Militia of the State was stated to be that part of the Militia of 
the United States resident within the State, a different standard 
was introduced. In view of the complication of the situation, the 
matter was submitted to the Attorney-General of the State. He 
ruled that, in view of the recent co-ordination of the State Mili- 
tary Law with the National Defense Act, it was not necessary for 
anyone to claim exemption within the fifteen day period. The 
Attorney-General also approved the regulations for county clerks 
prepared by the bureau in connection with their duties under the 
Xew York State ^lilitary Law. 

The serving of the militia enrollment notice and the compilation 
of the enrollment lists as provided by law, involved a great amount 
of work. The expenditure for clerical work in this connection was 
borne by the counties. 

Medical census 

In connection with the Census, n medical census Avas taken by 
forwarding through the mails to all pLysicians in the State a 
special census form, to be filled out and returned to the tabulating 
office of the ]\rilitarv Census Bureau for tabulation. 



32 !N"ew York State 

Forais used 

The Military Census Bureau prepared all the various forms 
which were used in connection with the Census, except the Census 
forms — the sets of questions to be answered — which were com- 
piled and approved by a committee of experts. In addition to these 
forms, the Census Bureau prepared detailed instructions with 
regard to the duties and responsibilities of the Home Defense Com- 
mittees and the directors of census, containing suggestions and 
recommendations for the division of the territory, the organization 
of the census forces and their proper instruction. They also 
covered the distribution of census supplies, the examination and 
marking of the filled-out census forms and their shipment to the 
tabulating office. The Census Bureau also provided in book form 
" Instructions for Census Agents," defining their duties and powers 
and containing very complete and explicit instructions for answer- 
ing each question on the census form. These latter instructions 
were also issued in pamphlet form and were used extensively in a 
number of counties. 

Census supplies were shipped to county headquarters for dis- 
tribution within the county in accordance with the estimated 
registration plus an allowance of between 20 per cent, and 30 per 
cent, for wastage. It develoj)ed, howevej", that the wastage in 
practically every county exceeded this allowance, which necessi- 
tated the printing and shipping of additional census supplies. 
This brought the total number of forms printed up to about 
30,000,000. 

H. B. TOLEI^, 

Assistant Director in Charge of Albany Office. 



Military Census A^*D Txvextory 33 



IV. THE PPvOBLEM OF NSW YORK CITY 

The populatioii of the City of ISTew York approximates very 
closely to 5,500,000 persons. The total area of the city is 315 
square miles. It is divided into five boroughs which are essen- 
tially different in their characteristics, occupations and population. 
The alien population is probably 2,000,000 persons, and those who 
have but a limited acquaintance with the English language num- 
ber into the hundreds of thousands. 

This gives but a bare outline of the size of the task imposed 
upon those in charge in ISTew York City in attempting to register 
all persons between the ages of 16 and 50 in the State Military 
Census. Dozens of other factors entered into the situation. Practi- 
cally every nation in the world is represented in the population of 
the city and every language is spoken. Many thousands of the 
workers in the borough of ]\Iaiihattan reside in other boroughs and 
can only be found at their homes in the night time. Scores of 
thousands work at night in connection with rapid transit systems, 
police duties, newspapers, as janitors of office buildings, and in a 
score of other occupations, and they are not home in the night 
time but only in the day time. A large percentage of the homes, 
particularly in Manhattan and the Bronx, are in apartment houses 
and in tenement houses four, five and six stories high. 
Thousands of persons reside in hotels. Other thousands make 
their living as traveling salesmen, actors on the road, sailors 
on ocean and inland lines, and workers in railway transportation, 
and are absent ivom the city for days and weeks at a time. Many 
hundreds of families of the more well-to-do classes, while tech- 
nically residents of the city, occupy suburban country houses in 
the early spring and summer months, leaving only a caretaker in 
their 'New York City homes. 

It was realized from the start that the problem of taking a com- 
plete census of the residents of the City of jSTew York under these 
conditions was essentially different from that of making a house- 
to-house canvass of a country town or county, or even a small city. 
The information required in the militai-y census and inventory 
bad to be obtained at first hand directly from the individuals 
enumerated nnd could not be ii'iven bv a caretaker or a housewife. 



34 'New Yokk State 

A cursory study of the situation led to tlie realization that a house- 
to-house canvass in New York City such as was taken in other 
parts of the State would be a total failure, and other means had to 
be devised. 

Governor and Legislature provide for central control 

Appreciating these difficulties, Governor Whitman, the late 
Captain George Garr Henry, State Director of the Census, and the 
Legislature made provision for a centralized control over the five 
counties comprising the City of ISTew York. One director was 
appointed for each of the other counties in the State, but J^ew 
York City was considered as a whole. Mr. Willard Straight, at 
that time chairman of the Mayor's Committee on ITational 
Defense, and Mr. E. P. Goodrich, director of the Bureau of 
Municipal Eesearch took up the matters involved as affecting the 
interests of the residents of the city of ISTew York with the State 
officials at Albany. 

The upshot of the conference was that the mayor's committee 
and the director appointed for New York City were given 
considerable latitude in arranging for the census taking, and a 
system considerably different from that prevailing throughout the 
rest of the State was determined upon for the City of New York. 

The convenience of the public an important consideration 

Those in charge of the work in New York City believed that the 
all-important object of the law providing for the military census 
and inventory was to obtain information. Although severe penal- 
ties were provided for a failure to comply with the law, and broad 
powers were given to the Director to deal with recalcitrant per- 
sons even to the extent of summarily committing them to jail for 
refusal to answer questions, it was felt that the public, particu- 
larly the large alien population which is inclined to view any form 
of registration with apprehension, should be encouraged and 
exhorted to comply with the law rather than threatened with pun- 
ishment. It was agreed that every facility should be afforded the 
persons affected l)y the law to comply with it in the easiest man- 
ner and with the least possible interference with their ordinary 
occupations and vocations. 

This policy of making it as easy as possible for the residents of 
New York City to comply with the law was successful beyond 
expectations. The total registration at the close of the census 



Military Census and Inventory do 

period was 3,280,870. which exceeded all the estimates. It was 
more than 300,000 aljove the highest original estimate that was 
made before the census was taken. 

Fifty thousand volunteer workers required 

The work was })ei:formed entirely by volunteers, more than 
50,000 people in all devoting time and energy to different parts 
of the task. Before the census began it was freely prophesied in 
some quarters that it would be a failure and that such a volunteer 
army could not be managed and could not work with even approxi- 
mate efficiency. The prophets were routed by the zeal, earnest- 
ness and the intelligence of those who volunteered and carried 
through the undertaking. In the description of the organization 
that follows the limits of space forbid mention of all the groups 
of men and women who co-operated. Merely to list the organiza- 
tions would require several pages. A recital of what each one did 
could not be attempted. Only a broad outline can be given, 
supplemented by typical details of operation which may prove of 
assistance to other states that contemplate engaging in similar 
service. 

An organization of organizations 

ISTew York City is one of the most thoroughly organized com- 
munities in the world. There are great organizations of women, 
such as the various church leagues, the school teachers, the Suffrage 
party, and the new Xational League for Woman's Service with 
its affiliated bodies. There are associations of business and pro- 
fessional men, such as the engineers, the chambers of commerce, 
and va]'ious trade and fraternal organizations, the civic clubs and 
church societies. The girls and boys through the public schools 
and high schools form a fairly cohesive body, while there are also 
the Boy Scout and Campfire G'irls organizations, available for 
patriotic service. The city employees form a large and intelligent 
group that may be employed for work of a public nature. Every 
church is a focal point for a rally to service for the country and 
state. The alien population is also organized from immigrant 
societies up to an association of foreign language newspapers. The 
homeless and totally unorganized strata of sor-iety are reached 
through the charitable organizations, the settlements, the Seamen's 
Institute and kindred bodies. 

Such bodies of people, acquainted with one another, having 
their own recognized leaders with their own division of functions 
and a sense of group responsibility, afford a substantial foundation 



36 'Ni:\v York State 

for an emergency organization in case of public need. This has 
been proved in other communities at critical times, and is now 
being given broad appplication by the United States government 
through its utilization of trade and business associations in sup- 
plementing the central govermnent agencies in the work of the 
war. But it has never been given such intensified application and 
has never produced more significant results than in the taking of 
the State census in the City of iSTew York. 

Limited time for training recruits 

In this case a period of thirteen days had been set for obtaining 
exact and detailed information from more than 3,000,000 people 
of both sexes and of all nations, thousands of whom could not 
understand the question blanks that were printed in the English 
language, and thousands of whom could not even sign their names 
in English. 

The first task, therefore, was to arouse the interest of these 
organizations and to obtain their pledges of co-operation. In 
this, the Mayor's Committee on ISTational Defense, which was cre- 
ated by Mayor Mitchel expressly to meet the unforeseen develop- 
ments that would result from a state of war, and the Buieau of 
Municipal Research with a large staff of accountants, investi- 
gators and engineers devoted to public service worked hand in 
hand. The headquarters for the work were located in the offices 
of the Bureau of Municipal Research which is adjacent to the 
City Hall and in the center of transit lines to all parts of the 
city. The work was planned at headquarters and tlie various 
group leaders met there for their conferences. 

Outline of general census organization created in New York City 

The trustees of the Bureau of Mmiicipal Research turned over 
without restriction the entire plant and organization of the bureau 
of the Training School for Public Service to the city director for 
tlie census vrork. Thus, the director had right at hand a large 
office with the latest modern equipment and facilities, and a staff 
of experienced specialists in public service, including adminis- 
trators, investigators, engineers, institution managers, account- 
ants, and attorneys, all of whom were familiar with conditions in 
Xew York city and with the various divisions of the government. 
In addition, there was a secretarial force composed of students 
ill the Training School for Public Service who were in training 
for ])i>sitioiis siK-h as soci'otaries of chambers of commerce, civic 



MiLITAKY CeTs^SUS AND IjXVEiXTOEY 37 

organizations and universities. There was also a well-equipped 
stenographic division. 

The staff of the Bureau of Municipal Research together with a 
number of representatives from other co-operating organizations, 
such as the public schools, the Suffrage party, the city employees, 
the engineering societies, and civic organizations, were assigned to 
the direction of the various divisions that were created by the 
Director to meet the requirements of the situation. 

The public school system was regarded as the most important 
organization in the work. Every public school in the city was 
made a public registration district. The teachers voted unani- 
mously to attend at these stations, and so a great organization was 
ready at hand. The people all knew where the school houses were 
located and that was another advantage. 

The organization that was created to supplement the public 
school system was depicted graphically on a chart. 

The smallest unit appearing on the chart is an assembly district. 
The practical unit, of which the assembly district was composed, 
was the election district. While the boundary lines of these small 
districts were not followed precisely, effort w^as made to approxi- 
mate their numbers. Each election district unit or place of regis- 
tration was manned by the registrars who w^erc under the direction 
of a district captain. The district captains, in turn, reported to 
the assembly district supervisors. 

Two deputy directors w^ere created as chief aides to the director. 
One of these, Mrs. F. Louis Slade, assigned the co-operating 
women's organizations to their tasks. One entirs i.^/ough, for 
example, was under the supervision of a woman. 

A borough registration division was created for the five bor- 
oughs and each was placed in charge of one or more persons. The 
assembly district lines were followed in the division of responsi- 
bility, and supervisors were assigned for each assembly district. 
Some of the larger districts had more than one supervisor. 

The organization of the Manhattan districts was directly in 
charge of one of the staff members of the Bureau of Municipal 
Research. The organization of the Brooklyn districts was in 
charge of the secretary of the Brooklyn Civic Club assisted by a 
representative of the women's organizations and a representative 
of the bureau. A similar plan to that followed in Brooklyn was 
adopted in the organization of Queens, where the secretary of the 
Queens Chamber of Commerce assisted by a representative of the 



38 New York State 

bureau was the head. The Richmond orgauizatioii was headed 
entirely by women assisted by a representative of the bureau. 

In order to relieve the pressure on the public registration sta- 
tions, a special registration division was created. The work of 
this division covered large groups of residents who could be 
reached easily through their occupations or other connections and 
activities. Seven subdivisions were made: one for employees of 
New York city, one for employees in large industrial plants, and 
for gTiests of hotels and inmates of institutions, one for Catholic 
parochial schools and private schools, one for foreig-n clubs and 
societies, one for public schools and colleges, one for the passengers 
on Staten Island feriy boats (which afford the only means of 
access to Richmond borough), and one for the department stores 
which included the thousands of employees on one hand and the 
women shoppers on the other. 

The men in charge of these seven subdivisions in the special 
registration division organized the various units, obtained registra- 
tion places for the different classes of people and were held respon- 
sible throughout the taking of the census for the delivery of sup- 
plies and the receipt of returns, as well as for the many questions 
which arose in taking the census among the industrial workers 
and the institutions, clubs, hotels, schools and city employees. 

A central office division was established with three subdivisions 
— the filing division, the executive headquarters, and the reserve. 

Each borough had its own filing subdivision for returns with 
the exception of Richmond borough which was consolidated with 
Manhattan. These subdivisions were directly under the central 
office which maintained a busy staff of secretaries and assistant 
secretaries Avho kept in constant touch with the other branches. 
The " reserve " division contained six highly important units, 
namely, equipment, transportation, registration places, purchas- 
ing, mapping and tabulating, and reserve personnel or recruiting. 
These worked closely with one another and with all the other 
activities throughout the city, and as the census developed, the 
transportation, equipment and purchasing units were practically 
merged into one group that was intimately connected with the 
storekeeping unit. 

Location of registration places 

Next to the creation of the working organization, the location 
of registration places was considered to be of the utmost import- 
ance. 



jMilitaky Census aiyd Inventotiv 150 

Owing to the uncertaintv of securino; a sufficient number of 
registration places, it was deemed best to start the work of secur- 
ing them at the earliest moment. This meant that places had to 
be secured before either the appointment of supervisors or the 
marshalling of the volunteer census takers. The work throughout 
the city, therefore, was conducted from headquarters until the 
supervisors were appointed to take charge of specific districts. 

The estimate made at the beginning calling for at least one, and 
in some instances two, registration places for each of the 2,179 
election districts, that is, one for each group of not more than 400 
male voters, proved to be substantially correct. 

The work of securing registration places was performed through 
various agencies. In order to conduct this w^ork systematically, 
and what was more important, to avoid misunderstanding as to the 
terms of acceptance of an offer for the use of a place, printed 
forms were furnished to all solicitors and it was required that the 
otfer of a place be signed by a responsible party. To facilitate 
the w^ork all solicitors were furnished with a set of mimeographed 
instructions concerning their work and registration places. 

How the use of places was obtained 

Places Avere secured through the following agencies : 

1. Direct solicitation in the field through rolunteers working 
from headquarters. 

a. Citizen volunteers. 

b. Students from institutions of learning in the city, such 
as City College, Columbia University, and the Xew York 
University. These institutions furnished over 200 volun- 
teers who did a great part of the preliminary work prior to 
the actual taking of the census. Owing to the fact that they 
received scholastic credit for this work, and in some instances 
were excused from their examinations, it was possible to keep 
a complete check on them. 

c. Volunteers from co-operating organizations, 

2. Co-operation of the municipal departments. 

a. The Uoard of Education. The Board of Education threw 
open 450 schools which proved to be the backbone of the 
whole system. 

b. Street cleaning department stations. 

c. All libraries and their branches. 

d. Miscellaneous department buildings. 



40 JSTew Yokk State 

3. Church buildings, Sunday schools, institutions. 

4. Circular letters addressed to real estate boards, owners of 
chains of stores, real estate agents, large estates, settlements, etc. 

5. Personal requests to large department stores. 

Maps at headquarters showed 3,000 places at a glance 

In the main office was maintained a set of maps of every assem- 
bly district in the city. These maps were kept posted to date 
showing : 

1. Location and character of the registrntion ])laces. 

2. Whether approved and accepted l)y tlie staif member or 
supervisor making the final inspection. 

Upon final acceptance a person oftering to furnish facilities was 
notified by mail. 

Over 3,600 places of registration of vnrions kinds were ofi'ered 
for the purpose of taking the census, of which 3,000 were accepted 
and actually used. In many instances, the persons volunteering 
the place were induced to render some personal service in connec- 
tion with the census, resulting in that station ])eing largely manned 
and cared for by the owner himself. 

In a few instances, where it was necessary to use vacant stores 
or vacant private houses, they were furnished ]3y borrowing tables 
and chairs from the board of elections. 

Owing to their use by the Federal census, the State census 
authorities were requested not to approach the owners of places 
which had previously been used as registration places for general 
elections. 

It was not considered advisable to use the police stations as 
places of registration, owing to the necessity of registering women 
and the probability of those registering or offering their services 
being thrown into 'contact with criminals or disorderly persons. 
Tire houses were excluded for the reason that it might interfere 
with the performance of the firemen's duties. 

Donations totalling 40,000 square feet of sj)ace for the borough 
headquarters were obtained from owners of large buildings. 

A campaigTi of publicity to win recruits for volunteer work 

The publicity work had a two-fold purpose; first, to interest 
large numbers of patriotic persons, employers and property owners 
to such a degree that they would volunteer to assist in the census 
taking, and second, to inform and instruct the public in the need 



MiLiTAT^v Census a^^d Ika'entoey 41 

for the census. Articles were published in the daily and 
Sunda}' newspapers of Xew York City beginning- as soon as th6 
first draft of the census (piestions which wexe to be asked of every 
man and woman of the State had been prepared. The majority of 
these articles were issued from the office of the State Division of 
Information in Albany. The newspaper publishers realized that 
the census v\^as a matter which affected practically every reader, 
and they devoted considerable space to explanations by the State 
authorities and the local officials which accompanied the ques- 
tions to be asked. Some of the newspapers, in May, even printed 
what practically amounted to facsimiles of the census blanks. 

This was all educational publicity which aroused considerable 
interest and discussion and acquainted the public generally with 
the fact that the State would soon require a great deal of detailed 
information from its residents. Every article and interview that 
was sent out at this time both from Albany and from the ISTew 
York city headquarters emphasized the need for volunteer work- 
ers. The opportunity to serve the State and Nation in the time of 
war was presented attractively and specific mention was made of 
the need for interpreters and registrars, with a promise that they 
would receive a testimonial from the State and the thanks of 
Governor Whitman in the form of a certificate. 

Co-operation of foreig"n language newspapers obtained 

The alien residents were not overlooked in this preliminary 
publicity campaign. The editors of more than Mtj foreign 
language newspapers of the city were invited to a meeting which 
was presided over by Mr. Louis Hammeriing, President of the 
American Association of Foreign Language IsTewspaper Pub- 
lishers. The need for the census was explained to them, the law 
was read and the entire plan of the work was discussed. These 
foreign language newspaper jDublishers unanimously pledged them- 
selves to do all in their power to aid in taking the census and 
appointed a committee including one Swedish publisher, one 
Jewish publisher and one Polish publisher to aid the military 
census work and co-operate vdth it to the fullest extent. In this 
connection it should be said that the assistance given by these 
publishers in explaining to their readers the objects of the census, 
reassuring those who were extremely timid as a result of police 
inquisitions in their native lands, and obtaining recruits was most 
efi^ective. This was particularly the case on the crowded east side 
and in the "Little Italys," "Little Hungarys," "Little 



42 JSTew York State 

Armenias/' " Clunatowu," and similar colouieri througiiout 
Greater 'New York. The questions to be asked were translated 
into the language of the readers of each newspaper, and explana- 
tions were added. The result was to make the task immeasurably 
simpler. Some of the editors went so far as to devote the entire 
front page of an issue to this campaign. In many instances the 
papers published a list of the registration stations in the city at 
which the readers might register under the auspices of those who 
spoke their respective langTiages. A large proportion of the news- 
papers themselves opened up registration stations in their owti 
offices and were instrumental in establishing additional stations 
where the language of their readers would be spoken and under- 
stood. Three of the largest foreign newspapers in the city assisted 
materially in the program of educating the foreigners with respect 
to the census by distributing handbills and placards in foreign 
languages by means of their delivery service in those parts of the 
city where the need was greatest. 

Twelve hundred volunteer interpreters listed 

At the outset it was planned to facilitate the registration of 
foreigners by establishing a large list of volunteer interpreters. 
In fact this plan was carried out in part and more than 1,200 
interpreters for more than 35 different languages gave pledges 
of assistance. These interpreters were assigned either on requisi- 
tion by the district supervisors or in accordance with the needs of 
particular districts, based on the general knowledge respecting 
local conditions and the presence of foreign inhabitants in par- 
ticular districts. It was felt, however, that although the assign- 
ment of this interpreter service from the central office was most 
effective in sei-ving certaiii portions nf the city, yet it was far from 
sufficient. 

' ' Foreign stations ' ' established 

The problem of securing additional interpreter service was met 
in a more pr:'.ctical and happy way. The solution of this problem 
was effected by the very close and active co-operation on the part of 
foreign societies, associations, lodges, churches and influential per- 
sons intimately connected with certain groups of foreigners in the 
city. The heads of these organizations were called into confer- 
ence with the member of the staff in charge of this w^ork. Each 
organization was asked to designate a responsible representative 
who would co-operate Avith the central office in the establishment 



Military Oeksus a?v'd Ikvkntoijy 43 

of *' foreign stations." It was their task not only to provide places 
conveniently located with respect to the homes of their people, but 
also to man such stations and maintain constant service. The 
instnictions to the captains and the registrars of these stations 
were given in most part through the district supervisors of the 
districts in which the particular foreigTi stations were located. In 
some cases the instructions came direct from the central office. 
This was true with respect to two Chinese stations on the east side. 
In some instances a representative of the census staff attended the 
meetings of the societies and addressed the foreign groups. 

It was found that on Sunday certain groups of the foreign 
population were in the habit of congregating in their churches, 
clubs, etc. For the convenience of these people Simday registra- 
tion was allowed. In some cases it w^as only possible to have the 
foreign stations open from 7 to 11 in the evenings, as it was only 
at this time that volunteers could be secured, or that the persons 
of the particular foreign group had free time diii'ing ^vhie]l thov 
might be registered. This was true particularly in the caso of the 
Finnish stations. 

Excellent returns from * ' foreign stations ' ' 

In all, there were 25 foreign agencies which were instrumental 
in the establishment and maintenance of approximately 250 for- 
eign stations. An inspection of the blanks which came in from 
these stations proved conclusively that these volunteers had 
regarded their work as a serious undertaking and had been most 
conscientious in seeing to it that all of the provisions of the law 
and the rules and regulations of the census v/ere carried out to 
the letter. It was undoubtedly by means of this plan that non- 
English-speaking foreigners could with ease and without embar- 
rassment register themselves in accordance with the State ]\rili- 
tary Census Law, and that the foreign societies not only were of 
great assistance to members of their race or nationality, Init also 
rendered a vital service to the State and nation. 

Instructing the army of volunteers 

As soon as the overhead organization was completed and the 
volunteer workers were listed, a rapid fire campaign to instruct 
the supervisors and registrars was inaugurated. Men and women 
from headquarters w^ho had been thoroughly instructed were pro- 
vided with greatly enlarged copies of the forms, with books of 
instruction supplied by the State and mimeographed sets of 



44: ]^EW York State 

instructions applying especially to Xew York city. Meetings of 
workers were called and announcement was made by mail and 
newspaper notices. The meetings were held in theaters and pub- 
lic halls, but principally in the great auditoriums of the public 
schools. The workers were invited to raise all possible questions 
that occurred to them and where the instructor could not answer 
a question which raised a new point communication was had 
immediately with headquarters. The instructors were provided 
with automobiles procured through the transportation division of 
the Mayor's Committee on ISTational Defense and they made whirl- 
Vv'ind tours from meeting to meeting, covering as }nany as seven 
meetings in an afternoon and evening. In this way thousands of 
registrars, as well as all of the district supervisors, were given the 
benefit of complete instruction in how to take the census and how 
to answer the questions on the blank. The men and women who 
attended these meetings, in turn instructed their assistants at the 
various stations, and much troul)le was thereby avoided in advance. 

Effective assistance from the newspapers 

As the first day of the taking of the census approaclied, the 
great metropolitan dailies began to devote an increasing amount 
of space to it. Letters were sent to the publishers and personal 
calls were made on a number of editors to obtain their co-opera- 
tion. It was pointed out that practically every reader of a news- 
paper would be directly affected by the census, and that the papers 
could be of great assistance to their readers by explaining many 
points in advance. Material for full page articles was supplied 
to all of the Sunday morning newspapers and for the one Sunday 
afternoon paper jDrinted in Xew York city. 

The department stores which had, almost without exception, 
agreed to act as registration places were urged to advertise that 
fact in the newspapers on the Saturday and Sunday preceding the 
census. They did so. One department store made a special fea- 
ture of the census for several days, printing a facsimile of the 
question blank for women and suggesting that their patrons fill 
the answers in on the advertisement in lead pencil and bring them 
to the store in order to save time in filling out the official blank. 

The newspapers on the day preceding and on the first morning 
of the census carried a very extensive story, special emphasis being 
laid upon instructions to readers, which were set up in "boxes" 
and contained warnings to comply with the law under penalty 



]\IlLlTARY CeKSUS AND INVENTORY 45 

of six iiiouthtj" iiuprisoiiinent. People were urged to register at 
the iirst opportunity as a patriotic duty. 

To use an advertising phrase, the State Military Census and 
Inventory on the morning of June 11th was the dominant feature 
of the day's local news. The result of this publicity was almost 
overwhelming. On Monday morning when the registration places 
opened it appeared as if every one in Xew York city had deter- 
mined to register on the first day. Subsequent checking of the 
returns indicated that on Monday and Tuesday, the first and 
second cluys of the thirteen-day period allotted for the taking 
of the census, more than one million people registered. 

The problem of the distribution of the census blanks 

The problem of the distribution of supplies was one of the 
most serious with which the census organization had to deal. 
Because of the method adopted in New York city to permit regis- 
trants to register at any registration station within the city limits, 
it was impossible to tell in advance the number of forms that 
would be required at any one place. This complicated the 
problem of distribution exceedingly. 

A central storehouse for the five boroughs, which had been 
loaned by the owners of a warehouse situated in the heart of 
Manhattan, was established. The storehouse was equipped with 
long tables for sorting and w^ide aisle space was allowed betw'een 
the different sections. 

In each of the five boroughs, the boi-ough headquarters avxl 
the borough filing division were pressed in the service as auxiliary 
distribution centers as soon as the forms were received, sorted 
and sent out from the central storehouse. 

With more than 3,000 registration places, it was realized that 
the means of transportation through volunteer automobile service 
was inadequate to afford deliveries to each station. The super- 
visors of the Assembly districts were required to receive the sup- 
plies for their districts and were held responsible for the delivery 
to the registration places under their supervision. 

As might have been expected, some of the outlying registra- 
tion places were not fully supplied when the stations opened on 
the first day. Special deliveries w'ere made by automobile. The 
great express companies loaned their traffic experts and special 
routes were made for delivery by express. 

A rather unlooked for development was that the people did 
not at first register at the public schools in the numbers that had 



46 ]S[ew York State 

been anticipated. The surge of the population was to the stores 
and other stations, despite the fact that the public schools had 
been advertised through all the advance publicity, while but few 
of the other stations had been listed in the newspapers. It would 
have cost upwards of $5y000 to have listed the places for only 
one dav in the newspapers at advertising rates. 

The stock of blank forms was rapidly exhausted in a number 
cf stations on the first day. It was immediately decided to put 
into effect a system of redistribution, collecting the supplies from 
one station and rushing them to another. The supply of automo- 
biles which had not been quite adequate to effect the original dis- 
tribution, was insufiicient to meet the peak load of demand which 
arose on the first two days. 

Important lesson learned from experience in distribution 

In the light of actual experience develo])ed during the two weeks 
of the census-taking, it is plain that a larger margin should have 
been allowed in the original allotment of forms. A margin of 
almost 100 per cent more than the estimated populntimi would 
not have been too great. Without a sufticieiit quantity of forms 
and other census material, the volunteer worker is placed under 
a severe handicap. The waste of forms, due to inexperienced 
workers in an unexpected rush, is naturally very large. Thou- 
sands of people, it was found, used up two forms before they were 
satisfied with the answers they made to the questions. In such a 
situation, a lack of the necessary equipment or even an apparent 
shortage, produces confusion. Another lesson drawn from this 
experience is that every kind of material supplies should be de- 
livered to the central storehouse far enough in advance to enable 
the local authorities to make up the shipments for each station 
and to effect the distribution, so that eveiy place will be fully 
equipped for the work before it begins. 

In making the distribution a record was kept showing the num- 
ber of forms delivered to each person and receipts for deliveries 
were obtained by the drivers. Learning of the reports of shortage 
in certain districts, alert supervisors and district captains were 
quick to put in requisitions for additional supplies for fear that 
thev too would be overwhelmed by an unexpected rush and find 
themselves short. In so far as it was humanly possible, the store- 
house forces watched for excessive requisitions and prevailed upon 
the applicants to accept only a reasonable amount. 



Military (^knsus and Inventory 47 

Forms printed in New York city 

Starting with a very close margin above the estimated needs, 
a shortage of forms rapidly developed in many sections of the city. 
It was realized at once that it would be better to have 100 per cent 
more printed matter than would be used, than to have 1 per cent 
less than w^as needed. With the consent and by the authority of 
the State officials, orders were placed with three local printing 
establishments — one located in the Bronx, one in Manhattan, and 
one in Brooklyn — to supply all the forms that might be legiti- 
mately called for. This auxiliary supply, coupled with the rush 
shipments from the State Printer at Albany, saved the situation. 
While at the conclusion of the census-taking several thousands of 
printed forms and cards of all kinds were left on hand and were 
cut up and sold as waste ])aper, the cost was relatively insignificaut 
compared with the results obtained. 

Co-operation of the public and parochial schools 

Tlie one organization that was deemed indispensable to the suc- 
cess of the work of the census was the Department of Education. 
Tie whole departmental machinery was put at the disposal of the 
city director in response to his request. All of the public schools 
were made public registration stations, practically without excep- 
tion. The teachers were circularized, and almost 100 per cent of 
them volunteered for service as registrars. The janitors of the 
public schools, who afforded invaluable assistance, tendered their 
services in a body through their organization. 

Each school was considered as a registration station, the captain 
of which was the principal or some one appointed by him. For 
instructing the teachers in the work that was to be done and for 
supervision the school districts were made the units. The twenty- 
three district superintendents acted as district supervisors. The 
entire force organized in this way included about 22,400 teachers. 
This force registered more than one million persons, practically 
one-third of the total registration in the city. 

The teachers instructed their pupils to bring their parents to 
tlie schools for registration. When the parents could not speak 
the English language, the pupils acted as interpreters. In this 
way many parents who would probably have never entered the 
public school buildings were brought into direct contact -with the 
teachers. This was considered to be of mutual benefit to both 
teachers and parents of school children. 

The parochial schools of the Catholi'c cliurcli throughout the 



48 'New Yokk State 

city co-operated in almost the same way. The church authorities 
were first appealed to aud they issued circular letters to the pastors 
of the parishes under their jurisdiction. Every parochial school 
was a public registration station and was manned by a corps of 
volunteers consisting of the teachers and active j)arishioners. The 
census was explained from the pulpit and the parishioners were 
virged to register at the earliest opportunity. The co-operation 
thus received was very helpful, and the effect of the interest of 
the clergy was very marked. 

Political party machinery not generally employed 

One of the most obvious forms of organization which was con- 
sidered was that of the two great political parties in the city. 
These organizations are composed of units, beginning with the 
election districts which comprise only a square block or two, the 
election districts being a part of the Assembly district organization 
and the Assembly district organization in turn being the unit 
for the county organization in each of the five counties. It was 
at first thought possible to employ these organizations, and soine 
conferences were held with this in view. The party leaders were 
quite willing to take over the task and it is probable that their 
organization would have performed most of the work in a highly 
satisfactory manner. Other considerations, however, outweighed 
the practical advantages of co-operation of these party organiza- 
tions. It was felt that it would be better to conduct the census 
without any emphasis upon political district lines or political 
affiliations. In Queens borough the offers of assistance from the 
Republican and Democratic organizations were gladly accepted^ 
but the men served as individuals and not as a part of the political 
machinery. This assistance was highly valuable and was given 
without regard to the advantage of either party. 

Police department and Home Defense Leagiie in preliminary work 

In previous census work it had been found very difficult to 
secure a complete return from a large number of residents because 
of their desire to remain unlisted on any government list. This 
applied in ISTew' York city to both aliens and many who might be 
put in the class of transients, since the latter had no regular 
lawful occupation and no fixed domicile. For the same reason 
those who were maintaining irregular establishments, living under 
assumed names and posing either as married or unmarried when 
the opposite was the case, had taken pains to avoid being counted 



Military Census and Inve.xtory 4D 

or enrolled iii previous official lists. Apprehension was also felt 
lest a large number of alien enemies who were known to reside in 
the city should evade the requirements of the census law by a 
failure to register. 

In order to meet this condition it was felt that the co-operation 
of the police department was required. Some sort of check had 
to be made of the census returns to make sure that they were com- 
plete. It was learned that the State of Connecticut had made a 
census and a study was made of the Connecticut system. It was 
found that the authorities of Connecticut relied upon lists of 
population, such as personal tax lists, school reports, city direc- 
tories, telephone registers, and other compilations of that nature. 
A card index of the population of a community was prepared in 
advance, the comnmnit}^ was divided into sections, and the cards 
relating to a specific section were used to check the individual 
fomis returned for the census. 

Many of the features of the Connecticut system would have 
been impractical in l^ew York city. Existing lists and directories 
were admittedly far from complete and the very persons whom it 
was most desired to reach would not appear in these lists and 
directories at all. 

A new system was devised. It vv^ns determined to make up a 
card index of the population of the city as far as it could be 
obtained by the regular police force and the members of the Home 
Defense League, which is a volunteer organization of citizens 
fonned to supplement the police force during the period of the 
war and working under the direction of a special deputy police 
commissioner. The police department assigned patrolmen and 
Home Defense League members to each precinct to make a canvass 
of each street and house and to prepare what is called a " spot 
card " for each individual between the ages of 16 and 50 residing 
within the precinct. These cards were then forwarded through 
the offical channels of the police department to police headquarters 
and were then sent to the several borough census headquarters. In 
each borough headquarters the spot cards relating to that borough 
were placed in a file, arranged by streets. The cards for each 
street were arranged according to the house numbers. The odd 
numbers came first in consecutive order and the even numbers 
were then arranged in like manner. The boxes containing the 
cards for the various streets were then sorted alphabetically. 
Where a large number of people lived at a given address, such ns 



50 New York State 

an apartment house, the spot cards were arranged in alphabetical 
order under the number of the house so as to be easily found. 

The information on the " spot cards " was obtained for the- 
entire city within a period of ten days immediately preceding the 
census. It was realized that not every person in the city would 
be met individually by a police officer in this preliminary census. 
The object was to obtain on the cards the names, addresses, age 
and sex of all persons living in the cily in as short a time as 
practicable before the state census opened. The rate of change of 
residence in the population of the city is comparatively high from 
month to month. It was realized that a considerable part of the 
police census would be useless because of changes in residence 
unless it was taken as close to the State census as was practicable. 
The result showed that the first census was taken at the right time, 
because only a small percentage was found to have moved between 
the "' spot card " census of the police and the opening of the State 
registration. 

In many precincts the cards were first distributed to the janitors 
of apartment houses, the clerks of hotels, and the servants of 
families who were not at home when the officers called. A second 
trip was made in a day or two to collect the cards. In many cases 
the police officers gave the cards to janitors of apartment houses 
and clerks of hotels only as a last resort after they had gone 
through the buildings themselves to hand out the cards 
individually. 

It was explained through the enumerators and the press that 
the spot card for any individual wlien filled out with the name, 
age, sex, etc., might be placed in a sealed envelope and left with 
the clerk of the hotel, the janitor, or delivered to the nearest police 
station house. Remarkably few cases of misunderstanding arose, 
although a number of people refused to return the census card 
containing the information to the police department, but insisted 
on sending it by mail to the Director of the Military Census. Sev- 
eral cases were subsequently discovered in which persons of both 
sexes had given an incorrect age on the spot card because they 
did not desire to reveal their correct ages to anyone in their imme- 
diate neighborhood. 

The effect of this "spot card " enumeration was very marked. 
Many persons who would otherwise certainly have evaded the 
State military census completely were much upset to learn that 
the janitor of the apartment houses in w^hich they lived, or some 



Military Ckksts axd Inventory 51 

other dweller in the house or m the neighborhood, had given their 
names to the police. Hundreds of these cases came to light dur- 
ing the taking of the Military census and scores of men and women 
called at the census headquarters to make confidential revelations 
concerning their status to the director, it is reported that on one 
block in a certain section six couples were married before regis- 
tering all the details required on the census forms. A number 
of citizens who enjoy a relatively high standing in the community 
were very much perturbed by the census. They confessed to 
leading double lives and maintaining two domestic establishments. 
Many of these persons were registered by the city director, 
who assured them that the returns were confidential and could not 
be used in any proceeding against them on the general rule of law 
that w^hat the State compels a person to disclose cannot be used as 
evidence against that person. The opinion of eminent attorneys 
and official prosecutors to this effect was obtained. 

It was the intention to check the registration forms that were 
returned against the " spot card ''' census so that at the close of 
registration those who had neglected to register could be easily 
discovered and action brought against them to compel registration. 
This was done in certain sections, but was not attempted for the 
entire city because the actual returns on the registration forms far 
exceeded the population indicated by the " spot card " census. 

The moral effect, however, of the police activity before the 
actual registration began was very noticeable. Thousands of peo- 
ple who might otherwise have evaded registration had no means 
of knowing whether their names had been turned in by the police 
through neighbors and janitors or not. They were afraid of 
prosecution and they registered. 

The period of actual census-taking — June 11th to 25th 

A few days before the time fixed by Governor Whitman's procla- 
mation for taking the census, the director in charge of jSTew 
York city issued a supplementary proclamation explaining the 
special requirements and features of the Xew York city work. 
This was printed on large cards and sent to every registration 
place. It was distributed also to large establishments and to 
several transit lines which posted the cards in conspicuous places. 
Large placards and posters containing the words " Register Here '' 
and announcing the hours and days during which the stations were 
open were also distributed to the registration places to attract the 
attention of persons subject to the law. 



52 ISTew York State . 

One of the first results of this distribution of posters, coupled 
with the newspaper notices, was to bring in a large number of 
callers to the headquarters who explained that tiiey would be 
absent from the city and the State during the period of the census. 
Iney requested tliat tiiey be allowed to register before leaving 
town. This led to a ruling from the State authorities that sucn 
persons would be allowed to register on Saturday and Sunday 
preceding the opening day. Several hundred persons availed 
themselves of that privilege, and a large room had to be set apart 
at the headquarters on Sunday manned by a force of volunteer 
workers to accommodate the rush of persons who were leaving 
to^vn. 

The rush of the population to register began early on Monday 
and continued unabated until late Monday night, some of the sta- 
tions remaining open until 11 o'clock, in order not to turn away 
people who had been standing in line for an hour or more. The 
sui^ervisors had been instructed to make reports of the number of 
persons registered in their districts at the close of the first day 
and of each succeeding day. Not all supervisors were able to 
make these reports, but on the basis of those received it was esti- 
mated on the following day that 300,000 persons had registered 
on Monday, June 11th. Subsequent analysis of the returns indi- 
cated that more than 500,000 persons had registered on the first 
day. Inster.d of falling ofF, the registration increased on the 
second day and the volunteer recruits, who had received their 
training under practical conditions on the first day, were able to 
handle the crowds more expeditiously. It was estimated from the 
day's reports that 500,000 persons had registered on Tuesday. 

A serious shortage of blanks developed at many stations on the 
second day, and for a time it looked as if a large numlier of the 
stations would have to be ordered closed for a day or two until 
their needs could be supplied. Hea\y shipments of blanks speciall}'' 
asked for by the I^ew York city authorities arrived from Albany 
that night and, by all night work, these were distributed to the 
points where they were most needed. The local printing establish- 
ments were pressed into seiwice on the third day and from that 
time on there was no general shortage in any section. 

The rapid consumption of census forms 

On the first two days the rapidity witli which the forms were 
used up and disappeared seemed almost inexplicable. An analy- 
sis made in the light of the revised reports accounted, to a large 



IMiLiTARY Census and Ixvextory 53 

extent, for the apparent shortage of forms. They had been used up 
in registering more than a million people, that is, practically one- 
third of the total registration in the first two days. 

x\nother factor that accounted for many thousands of blanks 
developed later. In possibly fifty per cent of the registration 
places the first comers, after registering for themselves, took home 
two or three blank forms for other members of their families to 
fill in at home. A husband .who had stood in line for an hour 
awaiting his turn to be registered, wanted to save his wife from 
the same experience, if possible, and took one or two of the blanks 
for women away from the registration place. In this manner 
hundreds of thousands of blanks, which were later brought in and 
signed in the presence of the registrars, were carried away from 
the stations and this naturally caused a shortage in many sec- 
tions. As soon as it was learned that the forms were being given 
out in this manner, strict orders were sent to all of the supervisors 
explicitly prohibiting the continuance of the practice and it 
ceased almost immediately. 

By the latter part of the first week the census machinery was 
working smoothly throughout the city. Iko disorder was reported 
nor any number of serious cases of refusal to answer. The census 
headquarters was kept open until midnight every night and on 
Sunday, and six extra telephone trunk lines were used to their full 
capacity until after the registration stations had closed every 
night. 

Close watch kept of number registering 

The newspapers sent reporters every day to headquarters and 
to various registration stations for the morning and evening 
editions. To meet their demands for information as to the prog- 
ress of the census day by day a tabulating division, composed of 
several clerks in charge of an accountant, was put to work. This 
division received daily reports on postal cards from the district 
supervisors and checked up the returns by telephone from dis- 
tricts that had not reported. As a result, the director was able to 
make an approximate daily estimate of the registration. It was 
realized that the average should be over 200,000 a day for four- 
teen days, if the estimated population was to be registered. 

When the reports indicated that the registration was falling 
behind, renewed warnings were issued through the newspapers. 
Eeports of an organized movement to encourage evasion of the 



54 JSTew York State 

requirements of the law in the districts largelj- ])opulated by mem- 
bers of the Socialist party cansed an immediate concentration of 
publicity on those sections, which was ably carried out through the 
foreign language press, a Socialist daily, and various organizations 
which had large memberships in these sections. In order to 
accommodate many working people and orthodox dews, a number 
of the registration stations in certain sections of the city were 
kept open on the two Sundays that fell within the census period. 

Every development of the work that would be of the slightest 
information or assistance to the general public was given to the 
press without reserve. When the essential features of the census 
appeared to be thoroughly understood, special articles were pr<?- 
pared detailing some of the '' human interest " stories that had 
come to light in the census-taking. On one day a special collection 
of data about the co-operation of the women's organizations was 
given to the newspapers. On another day, the legal preparations 
and arrangements that had been made with the city magistrates, 
the Police department, and the District Attorney's office for the 
prosecution of "slackers " were detailed at length. The object of 
the publicity work, that kept pace with the census-taking, was to 
focus the attention of the public on the census from beginning to 
end, so that those who had not registered during the first two days 
or the first week would feel impelled to register at the first oppor- 
tunity without waiting until the last day. 

The approximate estimates made from day to day indicated 
that on the last day about 200,00'0 persons would have to register 
if the quota of 2,900,000 was to be reached. The facts developed 
later showed that the estimates were consei'vative, for more than 
2,900,000 had' registered before the opening of the last day. 
Rumors had been circulated that in districts populated by Social- 
ists a concerted evasion of the census had been planned. The 
" plot " as reported was to have thousands refrain from registering 
until the evening of the last day, and then crowd into the registra- 
tion places in such numbers that they could not l>p registered 
before closing time. To meet this contingency, a " flying squad " 
of men from headquarters in several automobiles was sent out on 
the evening of the last day. They carried abundant supplies and 
were ready to bring extra registrars and clerks at a moment's 
notice to any registration place. But they were not needed. 
Instead of having an overwhelming rush of procrastinators on 
June 25th, many of the stations reported it their lightest day and 
closed earlv in the evening. 



Military Census and Inventoky 55 

Taking' the military census by mail 

The secretary's office handled all of the mail from the begin- 
ning of the census work. This office was obliged to expand very 
rapidly in order to keep pace with the enormous increase in the 
volume of letters which marked the progress of information about 
the census to all parts of the country. For a number of days the 
average receipts were nearly 2,500 letters and during the last 
week, by actual count, 5,000 letters were received within a period- 
of twelve hours. The total out-of-town registration was very 
nearly 50,000, all of which was handled through the secretary's 
office. 

Thousands of inquiries from residents of New York, who w^ere 
temporarily out of town, were received a;!jking for detailed infor- 
mation as to how to- register. All of these letters were marked 
"A." The letter "A" indicated to the stenographic division that 
the form letter explaining the method of registration to be fol- 
low^ed l)y out-of-town registrants would answer the communi- 
cation. A large number of individuals were uncertain whetliei- 
they were legal residents of the city and State of New York and 
desired an opinion on this subject. Such letters were marked 
" B." The stenographic division understood from this sign that 
the form letter on the elements of legal status was to be for- 
warded to the writer. In like manner, fifteen other foiTn letters 
that had been devised to answer inquiries were employed. 

It was found that it was not Jjossible to answer all of the com- 
munications by form letters. Many inquiries were answered 
directly by one of the assistant secretaries without liurdeniiig 
any other division of the census. A large number of interesting 
legal questions were sent in by mail and the letters containing 
these were cleared through the legal division. The name of the 
head of the division was written on the letter and the office 
messenger service immediately delivered the letter to the indi- 
vidual designated. 

Great effort was made to have every letter attended to on the 
day it was received. The work was systematized so that one 
person opened the envelopes, a second removed the contents, and 
a third assorted them into piles. The returns from persons who 
had sent in their registration forms correctly filled out were at 
once acknowledged by forwarding them a certificate card with 
instructions to fill in their names and addresses on the lines 
indicated. 



5G i^EW York State 

The secretary's office uaturally coiiiinued to receive large num- 
bers of returns long after the date set for the closing of the census 
on June 25th. This was easily accounted for by the fact that 
returns were received from places as far distant as San Fran- 
cisco, Hawaii, and the Philippine Islands. 

How the legal questions were worked out in New York City 

Considerable difficulty was encountered in construing the duties 
^nd powers of the director and his assistants, as well as the rights 
and duties of the various classes of persons within the limits of 
the city under the provisions of the Census Law. ^lauy novel 
points were raised for the solution of which precedents could not 
be found. 

Prior to the taking of the census the War Committee of the 
Bar of the city of l^ew York and members of the staff of the Dis- 
trict Attorney of ^ew York county were enlisted to assist in the 
solution of legal questions, and formal opinions on many points 
were requested from the Attorney-Greneral of the State. 

Preliminary consultations were held with Chief Magistrate 
McAdoo through whom all of the magistrates in the city were sup- 
plied with copies of the law, copies of the orders of arrest, sup- 
porting affidavits, orders of commitment, and the opinions of the 
Attorney-General's office. 

The principal legal problems which developed were : 

1. Whether or not an offense under the Census Law was a 
misdemeanor. 

2. What powers of arrest were granted to the director, assistant 
director or others under the law, and in what instances such arrests 
would result in the personal liability of the one making it. 

3. Whether or not witness and subpoena fees would have to be 
paid. 

4. What would be considered to be competent evidence. 

5. Whether an offense under the act was bailable or not. 

6. "Whether the director or magistrate had power to punish for 
an infraction of the law or whether bis power was limited simply 
to compelling a person to register properly. 

The director in New York proceeded on the assumption that 
his powers were ample under the law, and assumed the risk of 
personal liability for his actions despite the warning of prominent 
members of the War Committee of the Bar. It is obvious that no 
officer should ])e subjected to such n risk, and, in the event of anv 



Military Census a2sd I^'vejntory 57 

subsequent census, the law should be made so clear and compre- 
hensive that questions of this nature would not arise. 

Prosecutions under the law 

Reports and complaints in great numbers were received relative- 
to the suspected delinquencj of citizens of the greater city. In the 
300 and odd cases which appeared to be worth investigating the 
persons accused were brought to the office of the director and 
examined under oath as to their registration. In only three 
instances did the director encounter a refusal to comply with his 
request. In these instances the arrest of the persons was ordered 
and thereupon they immediately agreed to comply with the 
law without any further delay or the necessity of a hearing before 
a magistrate. 

For the purpose of serving subpoenas and investigating cases, 
the director had the hearty co-operation of the Police Commis- 
sioner of the city who assigned four police lieutenants to the office 
for a period of several weeks. In many cases, however, where it 
seemed doubtful that any offense had been committed, form letters 
were addressed to the parties concerned which invariably procured 
the attendance and explanation of such persons. 

On the whole, practically no determined resistance to the pro- 
visions of the Census Law appeared, and, therefore, those points 
of law which had been considered douljtful were not put to a legal 
test. 

A legal information bureau established 

There was an entirely ditt'erent class of legal questions much 
larger in number than those relating to the constniction to be 
placed upon the -Census Law itself. These questions did not arise 
from any desire to evade the law, but rather from a desire to give 
exact and correct information in compliance with the law. 

]\Iatter.s of citizenship and residence and status were the knotty 
points involved in these questions. There were literally thousands 
of them, many similar, but enough of them unique to require 
some very close and able legal reasoning. The status of women 
depended on that of their husbands, and many native Americans 
who were married to aliens protested vigorously against being 
classed as subjects of foreign governments. 

The world war had so intensified the racial and patriotic senti- 
ments of many men and women who were citizens of captured 
and conquered places, such as Poland, that they would flatly refuse 



58 ISTew York State 

to be classed as subjects of Germany or Russia or Austria, as the 
case might be, and insisted that they be entered as subjects of 
whatever nation they chose as the object of their allegiance. This 
situation had been foreseen owing to the preliminary course of 
training in which hundreds of volunteers had been encouraged 
to raise questions. As a preventive of disorder and ill-feeling, it 
v\'as decided to waive the strict construction of geographical 
boundaries in such cases, A number of ardent Celts refused to 
achnit they were subjects of Great Britain and were allowed to 
enter " Ireland " as the country of which they were subjects. In 
this manner many complications which were only technical in 
their origin were adjusted or prevented. 

An information bureau was manned by men with legal training 
to deal with these questions. It was kept very busy during the 
entire census period. One of the means adopted to reduce the 
pressure of telephone calls and personal visits on questions that 
could be answered generally was the preparation of material for 
the newspapers relating to typical incidents and questions. Prac- 
tically every possible phase of the elements constituting citizen- 
ship and residence was subjected to interpretation. The State 
Department at Washington was asked to make rulings in excep- 
tional cases and the local Federal officials in charge of naturaliza- 
tion and immigration were appealed to and asoistcd to a consider- 
able degree in the solution of the questions. In addition to dis- 
putes over nationality, place of birth and allegiance, a number of 
other matters were considered. A number of ex-convicts, for 
example, who had reformed and, in some instances, had succeeded 
in preventing their families and new acquaintances from obtain- 
ing a knowledge of their past, were mneh disturbed over the 
answer they should make in response to the question: "'Are you a 
citizen of the United vStates ? " They believed they had " lost 
their citizenship " on being sentenceed to penal servitude for 
crime. They were informed that they had lost only certain of the 
rights of citizenship, such as the right to vote and hold office, but 
that they could certainly answer the question in the affirmative 
without subjecting themselves to tlie danger of prosecution for 
making a false reply. 

The legal bureau a necessity in census work 

One of the conclusions reached from experience in tliis census 
taking was that a legal infonnation bureau is a necessity in the 
organization. The number of questions was very large in this 



Military Censts akd Lwkxtory 59 

case, partly on account of the large number of aliens and transients 
in New York city. The work, however, proved to be much more 
exacting and much more extensive than had been anticipated. It 
is plain that these matters require the undivided attention of a 
staflf the size of which depends upon the size of the community. 

Confusion as to requirements of State Military Law 

The Military Census was two fold. First, there was the enumer- 
ating and inventory thai iipplied to everybody within the State 
between the ages of 16 and 50, and second, there were the pro- 
visions of the Militia Enrollment Law. 

The State Military Law requires that a special notice of enroll- 
ment be served on each person enrolled under its provisions in the 
State militia. It had been decided that all male citizens and 
aliens who had taken out their first papers of application for 
admission to citizenship should be enrolled in the militia at the 
time they appeared before the registrar to answer the questions for 
the census and inventory. Special notification blanks were 
printed and the registrars were instructed to serve them personally 
upon all eligible males. They were instructed also to make a note 
of the service upon the registration fonn and subscribe their names 
as enrollment officers, v^-itli the date of service, and rubber stamps 
were supplied to facilitate the process. 

The militia enrollment forms were printed in red ink. On the 
back they carried a section of the law which stated that all persons 
who claim exemption from service in the militia must file an 
affidavit stating the reasons for the exemption claim with the 
county clerk of the county in which they resided. This led to 
much confusion in New York city. Thousands of men, most of 
them aliens, vvdio had not yet completed their naturalization, hur- 
ried to the county clerks in the five counties comprising Greater 
New York to claim exemption. The claims included the lame, the 
halt, the blind, as well as newly married men, and men with 
families of dependents. 

The county clerks in some counties received the claims and filed 
them. Long lines of men were gathered daily in front of the 
county clerks' offices for several days, and many arguments and 
considerable interference with the work of the county clerks 
resulted. Finally, an order was received from the State authori- 
ties at Albany instructing all census officers and registrars to 
instruct the man served with the militia enrollment notice that 



60 IISTew Yoek State 

they were not required to file their claims for exemption with the 
county clerk. 

This opinion was given by the Attorney-General in view of the 
fact that after the Census had started the United States Congress 
passed a law including the State Militia in the Federal Militia, 
thus changing the exemption clauses from State to Federal. 
stains. 

Sorting and checking- the returns 

Before the census-taking period vras over, the collection of 
returns was well advanced. It began during the first few days. 
Many of the supervisors even commenced sending in the returns 
at the close of the first day. The arrangements for sorting these 
returns had been made in advance and the separation of the forms 
according to the classification required was under way long before 
the census period had closed. A filing division had been estab- 
lished in each of the four boroughs, the Manhattan and Richmond 
work being consolidated at a great headquarters on Union Square. 
By August 6th, the director was able to report that the work had 
been completed and the returns transmitted to the State head- 
quarters for tabulation. 

It seemed only natural to expect that many thousands of th? 
returns would be defective, since the registration had been per- 
formed entirely by volunteers and hundreds of thousands of aliens 
had been required to answer the questions. The fact is that many 
minor omissions were noted by the corps of editors who reviewed 
the census forms. Signatures had been omitted in some instances, 
in others it appeared that questions had not been answered, while 
in a large nmnber of cases the registrars had omitted to signify 
that the notice of enrollment in the State Militia had been served 
on the eligible males between the ages of 18 and 45. 

Postal card notices were sent to all persons whose returns con- 
tained omissions. They reported to the supervisors at the borough 
headquarters, and the errors were corrected. When the final 
delivery had been made to the State headquarters of the complete 
returns with all omissions rectified, only approximately 500 
returns remained that the filing and sorting supervisors were 
unable to complete. In other words, the State received all the 
information it had requested from the residents of ISTew York 
city with the exception of 500 persons who had given more or 
less complete information and could not be located to supply the 
deficiencies. This showing was considered remarkably good. 



Military Cetcsus axd Txvextcry Gl 

The method of sorting in the borough headquarters 

The men of the KState iucluded between the ages of 21 and 30 
in the Federal Conscription Act required a separate classification, 
and in addition it was desired to know the number of citizens as 
distinct from the number of aliens within the State boundaries. 

It was necessary, therefore, as the completed forms were 
returned from the registration stations to examine the forms 
and assemble those of each borough in order that they might be 
forwarded to the respective borough headquarters. 

Each form was then edited in detail to see that all questions had 
been answered, that the forms had been signed by both the census 
agent and by the registrant, and if the individual registering were 
subject to State draft that a notice to that effect had been entered 
by means of a rubber stamp attested by the signature of the 
registrar Avho acted in the dual capacity of enrollment officer and 
census registrar. 

In the assembling division the female census forms were sorted 
into two classifications: (1) citizens and (2) aliens. These were 
made up in packages of 3,000 and forwarded to State head- 
quarters. 

The returns from male registrants, because of the several classi- 
fications comprehended under this group, presented a more compli- 
cated situation. It was necessary first to sort into (1) citizens 
and (2) aliens, and then to subdivide oneh of these groups in the 
classification shown below: 

1. Citizens 

a. Ages 18 to 45 for enrollment division. 

b. Other ages for State headquarters. 

2. Aliens 

a. Declarants 

(1) Ages 18 to 45 for enrollment division. 

(2) Other ages for State headquarters. 

b. Other aliens 

(1) Ages 21 to 30 for State headquarters. 

(2) Other ages for State headquarters. 

The two groups subject to the State draft were then sent to 
the enrollment division to be treated in accordance with the rules 
prescribed by law to pave the way for a State draft should condi- 
tions arise that make a draft necessary. 

The Brooklyn filing office may be mentioned as an example of 
the sort of work that was done. This office handled all the work 



02 New Yoek State 

following the actual census-taking for the borough very efficiently. 
During the i3eriod of the census-taking a total of 638 volunteers 
worked at the Brookl^Ti headquarters, but most of them failed to 
report after the schools <5losed. On July 5th a school of instruc- 
tion in business practice and organization was organized, the 
students 'of which worked on the census and in return received 
instruction in business methods and attended a course of lectures 
organized for their benefit. A total of 139 students was obtained 
and with the volunteer workers and city employees assigned to the 
headquarters, a total attendance of 150 workers was secured at an 
average of three and one-half hours per day. The volunteer work- 
ers in Brooklyn headquarters included 42 employees of several 
city departments, 313 students from the high schools, and 283 
others who volunteered from patriotic motives. 

The same story could be told of each of the other borough head- 
quarters where himdreds of volunteer workers co-operated with the 
city employees and the Bureau of Municipal Research members 
assigTied to the exacting work of editing, sorting and filing the 
millions of forms. In this work several large corporations assisted 
materially. The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company leads the 
list. This company furnished the services of 300 expert filing 
clerks for seven nights, three hours a night, to handle the enormous 
volume of returns at the Manhattan headquarters on I'uion Sq)iare, 
They provided their own supervision and trained their girls for 
this particular work. They paid them at overtime rates, at a cost 
of several thousand dollars. The Equitable Life Assurance Society 
provided a force of ten expert male clerks for a period of two weeks 
in Queens and Brooklyn. The city departments assigned a num- 
ber of experts to supervise the work in other boroughs. 

Enrollment division 

The census returns showed that there were more than 800.000 
eligibles in the city of jSTew York between the agess of 18 and 45 
who came imder the provision of the State Draft Law. It was 
necessary that a list be prepared in quadruple for each county 
in which should appear the names of eligibles within its borders, 
one copy for the Adjutant-G'eneral, one for the director of the 
census, one for the city clerk, and one for the county clerk. 

In respect to each person, it was necessary to enroll the name, 
address, age, date of birth, occupation and previous military 
experience. 



Military Census and Inventory 6-3 

A battery of thirty typewriters was obtained and operators there- 
for were secured from business agencies. 

Except for one porter employed at the warehouse, the enroll- 
ment division was the only one in which any public funds were 
expended for personal service during the entire census period in 
New York city. 

In the early stages of this operation, the cost })er thousand 
was very high so the workers were divided in three teams and a 
machine hour rate expressed in terms of sheets was adopted with 
a time bonus awarded to the winning team each week and a special 
time bonus for the leading operator. This arrangement was after- 
ward supplemented by a cash bonus for each worker for all sheets 
over a given number. By these methods, the cost per thousand 
was reduced to 20 per cent of its original figure. 

Financial side of the New York city census taking 

The cost of taking the census in jSTew York city was defrayed 
by the State of 'New York, the city of New York and contributions 
from private sources. 

The State printed all of the census forms, cards, certificates, 
instruction books and other matter that directly concerned the 
actual returns and reports desired by the State authorities. That 
represented all of the expenditures that were incurred by the 
State as far as iSTew York city was concerned. 

The city of New York, through the Mayor's Committee on 
National Defense, defrayed all of the other cash expenditures of 
an official nature that were incurred in connection with local 
printing, postage, telephones and telegrams, the hiring of delivery 
trucks and automobiles for emergency service at late hours, the 
cost of printing extra and special notices to the census agents, 
and the extra equipment and supplies that were required in an 
undertaking of this size. The few instances in which direct 
expenses were incurred for personal service were also met by the 
Mayor's Committee on National Defense. The total amount 
appropriated by the Mayor's Committee was $30,000. 

The contributions from private sources were in the form of 
cash outlays and service performed by employees for which the 
organizations that assisted paid. The cost to the Bureau of 
Municipal Research which, through its director and staff actively 
supervised the work, amounted to more than $22,000. In this 
total no account is made of indirect expense such as rent and light. 



'64 ITew Yojiiv State 

There is no way in which to approximate the total value of 
the contributions of personal service by individual volunteers, 
owners of automobiles and delivery trucks, clubs, civic organiza- 
tions, and corporations. The rental value of the registration 
places that v/ere loaned for the census work, the janitorial service, 
the light that was furnished and the wear and tear on equipment 
and buildings cannot be estimated. The persons and the organi- 
zations that assisted did not count the cost, they felt that they 
were assisting in a useful and patriotic work. Letters of thanks 
from the Mayor and the director were sent to many organizations 
and individuals who had given the most important assistance in 
these lines, and all received a testimonial from Governor Whitman. 
The only real return to the majority was the consciousness of a 
duty well done. 

Practically all of the appropriation from the Mayor's Commit- 
tee on National Defense was used. The appropriation was placed 
at the disposal of the directoT foT l^ew York city subject to the 
audit and approval of the Mayor's Committee and the city 
comptroller. 

The office manager of the Bureau of Municipal Research was 
given charge of the expenditure control under the personal super- 
vision of the director. The contracting of obligations against the 
appropriation was left entirely to the Bureau, except that the 
approval of the Mayor's Committee was required for expenditures 
involving more than $200, or for matters involving an important 
question of policy. 

The basis of expenditure control was the purchase order system. 
For this pui'pose a simple form of purchase order wias used, pro- 
viding for two copies only, the vendor's and the purchasing agent's. 
It provided the usual spaces for vendor's name and address, 
printed directions as to submission of bills, delivery terms, etc., 
quantity, description, unit price and total of items, checking of 
receipt of goods, serial number, date, by whom ordered, purchasing 
agent's signature, director's approval initials, and account 
chargeable. 

Members of the organization presented to the office manager 
requisitions for supplies, equipment or personal service on simple 
mimeographed requisition slips, describing the article or service 
desired and signed by the person making the request. The office 
manager used his judgment as to whether such requisition would 
])(' honored direct or should have the director's approval. 



Military ('p:Nsrs am> LwEiXTfin' 65 

On receipt of such requiir^ition properly siji,iie(l a ))nrchase order 
was made out. Each order bore a serial nuinber. Duplicate cards 
(8^ X 11) ruled in colunms for s(n'ial nnniher, vendor's name, 
date, and amount of order, lay on the office maiiai;,(M's and on the 
director's desks. As the purchase order was made out the corre- 
sponding number on the card was canceled and description 
entered. The order was then foi"warded to- the director who, 
approved by his initials, made a record uij)-on his* card and returned" 
the order to the ofKce manager. 

The details of the system were designed so that a moment's 
recourse to the adding machine would show the total encumbrances 
of appropriation to date, and thus by subtraction, the unencum- 
bered balance of appropriation. 

Vendors were instructed to submit all bills in triplicate due 
to the local situation. The bill was then stamped and routed 
through the office for approving initials on the following points ; 
date of receipt of goods, condition of goods, correctness of exten- 
sions and correctness of price, after which it returned to the office 
manager. 

At short intervals, these bills were forwarded to the Mayor's 
Committee for payment together with a schedule giving date of 
bill, name of vendor, and amount of bill. 

A fund of $50 was set up to take care of miscellaneous expense 
for postage, small supplies, car fare and the like, and one large 
item — transportation. The petty cash disbursements were made 
on presentation of small slips ruled to show dat<j, purpose of disr 
bursement, amount, signature of recipient of each and office man- 
ager's approval initials. The slips made out in duplicate were 
not honored without the approving initials mentioned. Reim- 
bursement request to keep the imprest fund at $50 was made in 
the form of a bill to the Mayor's Committee supported by petty 
cash vouchers and entered upon purchase order as previously 
mentioned. 

It would be absurd to contend that the system was ideal. It 
was frankly a temporary scheme designed to utilize to as large 
an extent as possible the material and organization already in 
existence, and as such, it proved easily workable and efficient. 
There was no breakdown, lost motion or even noticeable error in 
this branch of the work. From the Bureau standpoint it w^as 
entirely satisfactory. 
3 



66 



JSTew Youk State 



No recommendation for a general sj'stem of expenditure control 
for war census work is made, since it is highly improbable that 
the triple co-operative arrangement of city comptroller's office, 
Mayor's Committee on National Defense and the Jiureaii of 
Municipal Eesearch will be duplicated elsewhere. The local sit- 
uation should be the guide and a plan adopted that most smoothly 
fits in with existing conditions. 

Total registration in New York city 

The following tables give a brief summary of the registration 
in Xew York city by boroughs: 

New York State Militaky Census and Inventory — Summary 
OF Total Registeation ey Boroughs of New York City 





Total 


Manhattan Bronx 


Brooklyn 


Qusens 


Richmond 


Females 

Males: 

Militia, 18-45: 

Citizens 

Declarants 

Other than militia: 

Citizens 

Aliens 


1,650,775 

798,005 
216,160 

172,375 
443,555 


702,080 

266,100 

105,850 

70,561 
249,800 


214,162 

119,400 

28,700 

20,955 
37 , 400 


584,541 

313,344 
69,124 

69,0,33 
133,511 


121,789 

80,361 
9,586 

16,782 
16,344 


28,203 

18,800 
2,900 

4,044 
6,500 


Total 


3,280,870 


1,394,391 


420,617 


1,160,553 


244,862 


60,447 



Extension of time for out-of-town registrants 

For a j)eriod of two weeks, the various borough headquarters 
and several other stations were kept open for the accomodation of 
persons v\'ho had been unable to register, owing to illness or 
absence, betAveeii June 11 and June 25. These stations were 
closed, one by one, until there were only three places remaining, 
one at the headquarters in the Bureau of Municipal Kesearch, one 
at the Seaman's Institute, for seaman and ships' officers, and one 
at the Mid-Day Minute Men's headquarters, near City Hall 
Park. The last place was kept open and manned l)y volunteers 
until the middle of August. The headquarters in the Bureau of 
Municipal Research was still receiving registrations in the latter 
part of Septemlier* from travellers and seaman who had returned 
from distant ports. The men who followed the sea were par^ 
ticularly anxious to register because shipowners, in general, 

*For example, on September 20th, eight men from a ship that had just 
arrived were registered. 



Military Ceis^sus and Invextory 67 

refused to allow their einployces to sail from Xew York without 
a certificate of regis-tration. 

Many persons (about 2,500 to date) have reported that they 
have lost their registration certificates and they have been given 
special certificates upon making affidavit to the facts. This work 
has been continued at the Bureau of IMunicipal Research with the 
assistance of several devoted volunteers. 

Heads of Census Organization Divisions 

The following were appointed as deputy and assistant directors 
of census, ]Sew York city, in charge of the various divisions of 
work : 

Deputy Dii'ectors 

Mrs. F. Louis Slade. 
Clement J. Driscoll. 

Assistant Directors 

1. J. B. Creighton, 1809 Avenue H, Brooklyn. 

2. Walter I. Willis, 44 Geranium street. Flushing, L. I. 

3. Charles F. Minor, 2 West 129th street, New York city. 

4. ]\[rs. William G. Willcox, 115 Davis avenue, West jSTew 

Brighton. 

5. Chester J. Teller, 261 Broadway, ISTew York city. 
G. Mrs. Daniel A. Palmer, 631 E. 168th street. 

7. Mrs. Frederick L. Cranford, 479 Clinton avenue, Brooklyn. 

8. Shepard A. Morgan, 829 Park avenue, iS^ew York city. 

9. Mr. Alfred D. Flinn, 261 Broadway, iS^ew York city. 

10. Dr. Carl E. McCombs, 296 Madison street, Brooklyn. 

11. Russell I-I. Allen, 297 Ryerson street, Brooklyn. 

12. W. G. H. Brehmer, 118 Cypress avenue, ^New York city. 

13. Dr. Creighton Barker, 34 West 44th street, Xew York city. 

14. George M. MacAdam, 54 Morningside drive, Xew York 

city. 

15. Dr. Birl E. Shultz, 180 Claremont avenue, Xew York city. 

16. James A. Taylor, 521 W. 123d street, Is^ew York city. 

17. J. A. Nicholls, 26 Jones street, Kew York city. 

18. Frank H. Pennington, 58 Frelinghuysen road, Tompkins- 

ville, N. Y. 

19. C. D. Benson, 255 West 101st street, New York city. 



68 New York State 

20. Heury Butterworth, 127 West 56th street, New York city. 

21. J. Harman-Ashley, 101: West 91th street, New York city. 

22. S. G. Lindholm, 46 Dominick street. New York city. 

23. M. G. Lawton, 113 Waverly place, New York city. 

24. J. O. Rees, 1120 Amsterdam avenue. New York city. 

25. Darrell H. Smith, 261 Broadway, New York city. 

26. C. Alan Eckels, 7 Delaware place. Flushing, L. I. 

27. Charles F, Kerrigan, 87 Lenox road, Brooklyn. 

E. P. Goodrich, 
Director for New Yorh City, 



Military Census and Inventory 69 



V. THE CENSUS OFFICE 

At the first conference of those who organized the State Mili- 
tary Census and Inventory, under Captain Henry, Director, it 
was decided that since the work in hand necessitated the employ- 
ment of between 700 and 900 clerks, whom it would be very diffi- 
cult to secure in Albany, and since it would require the constant 
supervision of, and consultation with men of actuarial training, 
it would be advisable to establish a tabulating and filing division 
in ]Srew York city. 

A committee was appointed to select suitable quarters, having 
in mind the necessity of locating the bureau in a building capable 
of sustaining a dead weight of not less than 300 pounds to the 
square foot. The committee, with the assistance of the ISTew York 
city authorities, secured for the use of the bureau three floors in 
the building at 49 Lafayette street. This building had light on 
all four sides, high ceilings, and a construction which could 
stand the required amount of weight. 

On April 16th, the Xew York office was established with a pre- 
liminary force of six people. On May 4th, thirty-five clerks were 
employed and the numbers were increased until on July 16tli the 
total number employed was over 800. 

During the entire twenty-four weeks existence of the branch 
office over five and a half million documents have been received, 
and these have been coded, the information transferred to a corre- 
sponding number of Hollerith cards, the original census forms 
filed in their ])roper geographical position, the Hollerith cards 
sorted into pre-determined groups, and a completed study of the 
results made. 

From the start, the bureau has been constantly requested to 
supply information to all liranches of the Federal and State 
Departments, to the British, French and Italian governments, 
and to all kinds of organizations with properly constituted au- 
thority behind them. These calls included not only those people 
who expressed a desire to enlist in the National service, but those 
people of military age, native born, aliens with first papers, who 
could be of use in their ))rofessional capacity to the country. The 
names and addresses of the following have been supplied: 1,255 
w^ireless operators; 240 horseshoers ; 700 ship builders; 1,659 
cooks, 1,806 bakers; 1,368 butchers; 75,600 who desired to enlist 
in the army; 18,125 who desired to enlist in the national guard; 



70 'New Yokk State 

6,000 who desired to enlist in the navy; 1,100 who desired to 
enlist in the marine corps. 

The British Commission has been supplied with the names of 
over 00,000 British subjects residing in New York State. 

The Navy Yard in Brooklyn has been furnished wnth the names 
of 550 steam engineers, 519 machinists, 550 power boat operators. 

The Mayor's Committee was supplied for the purpose of 
Americanization of the Greater City, with the names of 1,215 
people who are qualified to teach. 

There has been received and turned over to the proper authori- 
ties during the time of operation a vast quantity of information 
relative to the activities of enemy aliens. Great assistance has 
been given to the Federal authorities, in many instances, in check- 
ing up the information given in the Federal draft by those who 
desired to evade service in the National Army. 

Several requests have just been received from chairmen of the 
Liberty Loan Committee for permission to use the census returns 
in their work, as there is no other complete county record avail- 
able. These requests are being honored. 

Summary of work 

The principal operations in connection with the work of tabula- 
tion were as follows: 

1. Opening the envelopes and unfolding the blanks for use. 

2. Sorting of census forms to determine whether those for men 
had not been included with those for women. 

3. Segregating the census fcrms of residents in the large cities^ 
to make the work of coding easier. 

4. 'Coding each blank (ThePG were nine codes). 

5. Checking the work of the coders. 

6. Perforating the cards. 

7. Checking the perforations on the cards. 

8. Typing the name and address. 

9. Sorting the cards by means of machinery. 

10. Segregating such groups as were necessary for tabulation.. 

11. Filing the blanks according to city and district. 

12. Placing the cards in a specified order for future use. 
Various experiments were adopted to get the best and most 

accurate work from the emplo^/ees. One group of workers com- 
peted with another, both as to the amount of work done and the 
absence of errors. An honor list was made of those who did the' 
largest amount of work and did it correctly. 



MiLiTAKY Census akd Inveintorv 71 

Receiving di^dsion 

In anticipation of receiving daily fi'om the 02 different coun- 
ties, the blanks as completed, it was deemed advisable to prepare a 
storage place, and with this in view there wer(^ constructed seven 
bins 3t> feet long, 2 feet wide and 12 feet high, with a capacity 
for holding the (5, 000,000 l)lanl<s which it was understood would 
be sent in. 

The blanks were received in large white envelopes printed in 
three colors: (a) red, denoting males between the ages of 21 and 
30; (b) black, denoting males between 10 and 20, and 31 to 50; 
(e) blue, denoting women between 10 and 50. The pnr]>ose of the 
ditferent colors was to make it possible for the work shop to pick 
out quickly the blanks most necessary for the needs of the Govern- 
ment. As the blanks were received, a record of the number of 
each kind was made out on a form already provided and this 
report was telephoned to the Albany office and later confirmed by 
the report blanks. This was done so that the Albany office would 
be kept in touch with the number of blanks sent in from the vari- 
ous counties and so that they wonld be able to check off those 
counties which were slow in sending in the completed blanks. A 
second record was made daily on a card showing the number of 
blanks received from each county, and from which it was possible 
to keep an accurate account of all the work received. This 
division of the work required the services of six men and two 
women for a period covering June 11th to Jidy 15th. There 
were over 5,000,000 blanks received. 

Verifying 

This work was done by girls on a special machine, for which 
each girl received $10 per week; 25 to 30 were employed on each 
shift. 

It was necessary that all cards punched should be verified as 
to correctness, it being recognized that many errors v;onld occur 
in the punching of the cards. The amount of work done per girl 
averaged from" 1,800 to 2,200 per day and 1,500 to 1,900 per 
night. 

Typing division 

After the Hollerith cards were verified they were turned over 
to the typing division. The name and address were typewritten 
on the card in the place provided, and in order to insure correctness 
the typist was obliged to compare the county, age and occupation 



V2 New Yokk State 

code numbers as punched on the card with the code numbers on 
the blank. There were employed on the work from 55 to 115 
girls receiving a salary of $10i per week. At the start it was felt 
that 150 cards a day would be a fair average, in view of the neces- 
sity of comparison ; but by an efficiency blackboard, together with 
minor rewards, the daily average exceeded 1,000' per clerk, rising 
to 2,000 in some instances. Notwithstanding the comparison made 
by the typists, the work was checked back for possible errors. The 
daily output varied from 60,0001 to 06,000, according to the 
number of typists employed. 

Filing of blanks 

In order to provide for the filing of the 5,600,000 blanks 
cabinets containing four drawers each of the vertical type were 
used. It was also necessary to provide 30,00'0 ordinary guide cards 
from which were made 350 sets of guides of twenty-four sub- 
divisions and eighty sets of one hundred and twenty subdivisions. 
Special guide cards of 540, 960, 1,200, 2,00'0, 2,600 and 2,900 
subdivisions were made to take care of the larger cities. All large 
cities outside of G-reater New York were filed alphabetically. 
Those in Greater New York were filed by street and house number. 
The system employed was (a) separate by counties (b) separate by 
cities (c) separate by names. The number of clerks employed 
varied from 12 to 120. Experts in the filing of the blanks were 
used for that jmrpose. They received $15 per week, working at 
night only. All other help was by girls who received $10 per week, 
working on the two shifts already descril^ed. 

Leo II. McCat.l. 
As^istavJ Diredor in Charge of New York Offi.ce. 



Military Ce:xsus mxi) Inventory 73 



VI. FINANCIAL STATEMENT 

Chapter 103 of the Laws of 1917 provided for the taking of the 
census and inventory of the military resources of the State, made 
an appropriation of $150,00f0i for the purpose of the act and also 
provided that Governor AMiitman be authorized to receive dona- 
tions of money for such purposes in addition to the amount 
thereby appropriated. 

It would appear that the Legislature in appropriating $150,000 
fully realized that the amount would be insufficient to complete 
and compile an inventory of the State's resources and a census 
of the population, when it authorized the Governor, in the same 
act to receive donations. 

'Governor Whitman, in addition to the appropriation, received 
from private individuals donations amounting to the sum of $21,- 
085 and it was found necessary, in order to complete the tabulation 
of the census and to provide for the preservation of the records, for 
the State Defense Council, created under the provisions of chap- 
ter 369 of the Laws of 1917, to supplement the appropriation made 
by the Legislature and the donations received from private indi- 
viduals by the sum of $85,964.91:. Thus, the completed work pro- 
vided for under chapter 103 of the Laws of 1917 has cost the 
State $256,951.44. 

The financial transactions of the body created by this chapter, 
that is, the Bureau of Military Census, were begun under adverse 
circumstances. The Governor designated the Adjutant-General 
of the State of Xew York as the ])roper person to take the Census 
and Inventory and the task was begun, without establishing any 
precedent as to the latitude of the work or the availability of any 
plans for reference. The Director of Census appointed a staff 
and plans were consummated for the initial taking of the census 
and arrangements made in the city of Albany to provide for the 
taking of the census and the tabulation. Conditions became so 
chaotic that the Director of Census was forced to call upon the 
New York Life Insurance Society for voluntaiy aid and that 
Society furnished Mr. Henry B. Tolen, a financial officer who 
came to Albany and assumed charge of the financial affairs. 

On May 4, 1917, chapter 369 of the Laws of 1917 created the 
State Defense Council and provided for the council to exercise 
authoritv over all financial activities of the Military Census. The 



74: IsTew Yohk State 

CoTiiicil established a system of authorizations and in order to 
have a complete statement of financial transactions, established 
upon its records all liabilities incurred and contracted prior to its 
creation. These authorizations appear upon the Council's books 
as " M " authorizations, the letter " M " designating all authori- 
zations prior to its creation and the total amount of those author- 
izations was $55,777.11, against which cancellations have been 
established of $4,110.70, leaving the total net authorizations by 
the Council, under ":Si:'' class of $51,666.35. The council 
issued authorizations under its direct supervision of $120,593.08, 
against which there were cancellations established of $22,147.2-1 
and credit memorandum of $213.29, leaving the total net authori- 
zations by the council, under chapter 103, of $98,232.55. The 
total net authorizations under both classes against chapter 103 
were $149,898.90. There was authorized by the State Defense 
'Council from the funds provided by chapter 369 of the Laws of 
1917, $87,312.75, against which there were cancellations estab- 
lished of $1,345.21, leaving the net authorizations out of funds 
of chapter 369, of $85,967.54. 

In addition to the above, there was received from j^rivate con- 
tributions the sum of $21,085, which amount was expended for 
personal service. Thus, the total expended from the three sources 
for the purpose of taking, tabulating and preserving the military 
census of the State was $256,951.44. 

The financial report of expenditures has been divided into 
three classes, the taking of the census, the tabulation of the census 
and the preservation of records. All expenditures charged to 
the taking of the census were directly supervised from an ofiice 
in the city of Albany. All expenditures charged against this 
part of the activity were normal expenditures, with the exception 
of printing, which item, of course, provided for the supply of all 
blanks for the recording of upwards of 5,600,000 j^eople. 

The tabulation of the census was performed in New York city. 
The largest item of expenditure was $96,540.85 for personal 
service. This sum was expended for sorters, checkers and typists, 
and the wage paid to all but a few of the employees was at the 
rate of $1.66 per day. 

The second largest item was that of supplies, under which 
heading was provided all the cards for the recording of the 
census under the Hollerith system. 



Military Census akd Inventory 75 

The third largest item was that of repairs. The city of Xew 
York gave as a donation the nse of the building at Xo. 49 Lafay- 
ette street at a nominal rental, but in order to ])ro})erly accom- 
modate the large force engaged in the tabulation of the census, it 
was found necessary to provide sanitary conditions and to install 
new lighting facilities. 

The following is a statement of the financial aifairs of the Mili- 
tary Census Bureau. 

Appropriated by chapter 103 of the Laws of 1917 $150,000 00 

Allotted from tlie funds under the provisions of chapter 3<)9 of 

the Laws of 1917 85, 964 94 

Donations from private individuals 21, 085 00 

Total $257, 049 94 

Expenditures 256, 951 44 

Cash balance $98 50 



Taking of Tabulation of Total 

Census Census Preservation Expenditures 

Personal service $4, 727 77 $96, 540 85 $198 OO $101, 466 62 

Fuel, light, power and 

Avater . 142 45 124 92 

Printing 72, 888 05 

Advertising 100 00 

Equipment 1,683 58 4,714 17 28,368 00 

Supplies 6,473 38 13,506 22 

Traveling expenses 2, 909 98 1, 370 05 

Communication 2, 220 38 2, 868 22 1. 843 70 

General plant service 411 78 65 64 

Rent (tabulating ma- 
chines) 4,831 44 

Rent ( tvpewTiters ) 1, 191 50 

Rent . /. 1, 692 56 

Repairs 8, 078 00 





267 


37 


72. 


SS8 


05 




100 


00 


34. 


765 


75 


19, 


979 


60 


4. 


280 


03 


6, 


931 


30 




477 


42 


4, 


,831 


44 


1, 


191 


50 


1, 


692 


56 


8, 


, 078 


80 



$93,249 93 $133,291 81 $30,409 70 $256,951 44 



Jos. H. Wilson, 
Auditor State Defense Council. 

After completion of the tabulation, the primary records were 
removed from the property of the city of Xew York and placed 
in the State arsenal at Thirty-fifth street and Seventh avenue. 
All cards bearing the tabulation of the information taken from 
the original records were transported to Albany and placed in a 
room provided for the records in the basement of the capitol. A 
Hollerith sorting machine was installed to meet all demands for 
information relative to the records of the inventory and the 
census. All requests for information contained in the records of 



76 New York State 

the census are being supplied by the Adjutant-General of the 
State and the proj^er facilities for the supplying of this infor- 
mation are being met from the funds under his supervision. 

Provision was made under the terms of chapter 103 of the 
Laws of 1917 for the purpose of taking the Military Census and 
and Inventory of the Military resources of the State. 

The financial affairs of this Commission were under the control 
and supervision of the State Defense Council created by chapter 
369 of the Laws of 1917, effective May 4, 1917. 



Military Census and Inventory 
VII. APPENDIX 

CODE FOR EXEMPTION 

1 Religious scruples 

2 Physical disability 

3 Too many dependents 

4 Born in enemy cmmtry 

5 Exempted occupation 

6 In Government or 8tate service (exempted) 

7 Mentally deficient 

8 All other reasons 



CODE FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGES 






None 


1 


French 


2 


German 


3 


French and German 


4 


Spanish 


5 


Italian 


6 


Russian 


7 


Japanese 



8 Other languages 



CODE FOR COUNTRY OF BIRTH, NATIONALITY OR RACE 

01 United States (including Alaska and Panama) 

02 United States Territories and Possessions (Porto Rico, Philippines, 

Hawaii, etc.) 

03 England 

04 Ireland 
Oo Scotland 

06 Wales 

07 Canada and Xewfoimdland 

05 Australia, New Zealand, South Africa 
09 India and Egypt 



10 Belgium 

11 France 

12 Italy 

13 Portugal 

14 Roumania 

15 Russia 

16 Finland 

17 Poland 

18 Servia. Montenegro and Albania 



20 China 

21 Japan 

22 Armenia and Syria 

30 Austria 

31 Bohemia 

32 Bulgaria 

33 Germany 

34 Hungary 

35 Turkey in Europe 

36 Turkey in Asia (excluding Armenia and Syria) 

40 Denmark 

41 Greece 



rs 



'Nbw York State 



42 Holland 

43 Noiway 

44 Spain 

45 Sweden 

46 Switzerland 

50 Central America, (excluding Mexico) and including Guatemala, Hon- 

duras, Salvador, Costa Rica and Isiearagua 

51 JNIexico 

52 Argentina 

53 Brazil 

54 Chile 

55 Balance South America, including Bolivia, British and Dutch Guiana, 

Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay 

56 Cuba 

57 British West Indies 

58 Other West Indies as Hayti, Santo Domingo, but not Porto Rico 

60 Africa, (excluding South Africa and Egypt) 

70 Miscellaneous, such as Ceylon, Siam, Persia 



CODE FOR MILITARY OR NAVAL SERVICE OR TRAINING 

1 Regular Armv 

2 Navy 

3 Marine Corps 

4 National Guard 

5 Naval Militia 

6 Volunteers 

7 Reserves 

8 Military or Naval training at school, college, camp or cruise 

9 Servnce in foreign country 



Code for Highest Grade Held in Above Organizations 

Private " ' 

Non-commissioned officer, petty officer, warrant officer 

Commissioned officer below rank of Captain in Army or Lieutenant in 

Navy 
Captain, Major, Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel in Army, or Lieutenant, 

Lieutenant Commander. Commander and Captain in Navy 
All above rank of Colonel in Army or Captain in Navy 



Branch of Army 

Staff Departments 

(a) General Officer 

(b) Adjutant General's Office 

(c) Inspector General's Office 

(d) Judsfe Advocate General's 

Office 

(e) Ordnance Department 
Quatermaster Corps 
Engineers Corps 

Medical Departments 

(a) Medical Corps 

(b) Dental Corps 

(c) Veterinary Corps 

(d) Field Hospitals 

(e) Ambulance Companies 



Bureau of Navy 

1 Bureau Officer 

2 Line Duties 

(a) Navigation 

(b) Gunnery 

(c) Signal 

(d) General Administration 

3 Engineering Duties 

(a) Steam 

(b) Electric 

(c) Radio 

4 Pay Corps 

(a) Paymaster Corps 

(b) Quartermaster Corps 

5 Medical Department 

6 Aeronautic Branch 



]\rii.iTAR\' Census and Inventory 79 

5 Signal Corps 

6 Cavalry 

7 Field Jirtillery, Armored ilotor Battery, Aero Corps 

8 Coast Artillery 
i) Infantry 

CODE FOR OCCUPATION 

001 Dairy farmers and foremen 

002 Dairy farm laborers 

008 Farmers and foremen 
004 Fariu lal'orers 

OU5 Crardeners. llorists, fruit growers ;;nd nurserymcii (proprietors and 
foremen ) 

006 Same as above, laborers, including greenhouse 

007 Stock raisers 

OO'S Stock herders, drovers and feeders 

009 Fishermen and oystermen 

010 Foresters 

Oil Log and timber camps, owners and manageis 

012 Lumbermen, raftsmen and wood choppers, including foremen and over- 
seers 

Olo Other agricultural and animal husbandry pursuits, including poultry 
raisers 

014 Millers and foremen 

OL) Millers" employees 

016 Dairy product's, creamery, etc., proprietors, supervisors and foremen 

017 Dairy products, etc. — Other employees 

020 Legislative, executive and judicial officers of the United States and of 

the several States and Territories 

021 Military service 

022 Naval Service 

023 Clergymen, Priests and Rabbis 

026 Customs-house clerks 

027 Postoffice -employees 
028 

029 Xavy Yard employees 

030 Arsenal employees 

031 Armory employees 

032 Ship-building yard employees 

033 Firemen, City Departments 

034 Police Force of cities and towns 

035 Other policemen 

036 Mariners in sea service or on Great Lakes 

037 Officers of ships in sea service or on Great Lakes 



Explosives 

040 Proprietors, managers and supervisors 
041' Clerical force and salesmen 
042 Other employees 



Firearms, Cartridges, Shrapnel, Etc. 

045 Proprietors, managers and supervisors 

046 Clerical force and salesmen 

047 Other employees 



80 K'ew Yoek State 

Extraction of Minerals 

050 Operators, officials, managers and owners of mines 

051 Coal mine — f(jremen and overseers 

052 Coal mine — operatives 

053 Quarry — foremen and overseers 

054 Quarry — operatives 

055 Copper — foremen and overseers 

056 Copper — operatives 

057 Iron — foremen and overseers 
05S Iron — operatives 

059 Lead and zinc — foremen and overseers 

060 Lead and zinc — operatives 

061 Gold and silver — foremen and overseers 

062 Gold and silver ■ — operatives 

063 Oil Well — foremen and overseers 

064 Oil Well — operatives 

065 iSalt Well — foremen and overseers 

066 iSalt Well — operatives 

067 Gas Well - — foremen and overseers 
06S Gas Well — operatives 



Agricultural Machinery Makers 

070 Proprietors, managers and superintendents 

071 Clerical force and salesmen 

072 Other employees 



Aeronautics 

100 Aeroplane works, employees of 

101 Aviation insti-uctor 

102 Aviator 

103 Balloonists or makers of balloons 

110 Automobile drivers, including chauffeurs and gasoline truck drivers, and 

drivers, city bus lines 

111 Automobile repairman 

112 Automobile garage, other employees in 

113 Electric truck or electric carriage driver 



Automobile Factory 
{Other than Nos. 110-113) 

115 Proprietors, managers and superintendents 

116 Clerical force and salesmen 

117 Mechanics and other employees 

119 Artificial limbs, makers of 

120 Baker 

121 Blacksmith and liorseshoers 

122 Butcher (slaughter house) 

123 Chemist (not druggist) 

124 Carpenter 

125 Chiropodists 

126 Cook 

127 Dentist 

128 Electricians and wiremen 

129 Electrical Engineers, excluding motormen 

130 Hostlers and Stable Hands 



Military Census ANb Inventory . SI 



131 Nurse 

132 Oculist 

133 Painter 

134 Plumber and Steam Fitters 

135 Pharmacist 

136 Photographer 

137 Physician 

138 Saddler and Harness Makers 

139 Sailmakers 

140 Shoemaker, not in factory 

141 Steam engineer (stationary) 

142 Surgeon 

143 Tailor, not in factory 

144 Tent-maker 

145 Veterinary Surgeons 

150 Telegraph operator 

151 Telephone operator 

152 Stenographer and court reporter 

153 'Typewriters 

154 Wireless operator 

160 Assayers and Metallurgists 

161 Civil engineers and surveyors 

162 IMining engineers 

163 Consulting engineers 

164 Construction and Excavation engineers 



Stone, Clay and Glass Products 
Brick, terra cotta and fire clay bricks, enameled bricks, mosaics; 
pottery products, iticluding chinaware, crockery, porcelain, stoneware 
and tvhiteware ; lime, cement and plaster, including asphalt, artificial 
stone and stucco, gypsum ; stone, marble and slate, including soapstone, 
pumice-stone and hones; other mineral products, such as asbestos, 
graphite, carborundum emery, mica, talc, emery paper, sand-paper, feld- 
spar 

200 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

201 Clerical force and Salesmen 

202 All other employees* 



Metals and Machinery 
Gold, silver and precious stones, vnchiding assaying, refining, smelting 
and manufacturing of jewelry 

500 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

501 Clerical Force and Salesmen 

502 All other employees* 

Brass, copper, aluminum, smelting and refining 

503 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

504 Clerical Force and Salesmen 

505 All other employees* 

Manufacturer of brass, bronze, copper, aluminum, lead, zinc, nickel 
and miscellaneous metal goods, such as bells, gas fixtures, locks and 
wires 

506 Proprietor, Managers and Superintendents 

507 Clerical Force and Salesmen 
50'8 All other employees* 



Except Nos. 123, 124, 128, 129, 134 and 141. 



,82 New York State 

Iron and steel products; ore crushing, rolling mills, steel mills; forg- 
ings, structural and sheet iron u-orlc. 

509 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

510 Clerical Force and Salesmen 

511 All other employees* 

Cutlery, implements, tools, hardware, instruments 

512 Proprietors, ]\fanagers and Superintendents 

513 Clerical force and salesmen 

514 All other employees* 

Locomotives, Gars 

515 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

516 Clerical Force and Salesmen 

517 All other employees* 



Electrical Apparatus 

518 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

519 Clerical Force and Salesmen 

520 All other employees* 



Manufacture of Wood 
Wood manufacturers, saw mill and plaiting mill products, including 
lath, shingle and excelsior, barrels, cigar boxes, etc.; iniscellaneous wood 
articles, such as chairs, ladders, icagon hubs, tvooden tvare, pencils, pipes, 
rattan goods; furniture, cabinet work, pianos, organs 

203 Proprietors, managers and superintendents 

204 Clerical force and salesmen 

205 All other employees* 



Furs, Leather and Rubber Goods 

Leather tanning, curing and salting hides 

521 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

522 Clerical Force and Salesmen 

523 All other employees* 

Manufacture of saddlery, harmless, bags, gloves and miscellaneous articles, 
except boots and shoes 

524 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

525 Clerical force and Salesmen 

526 All other employees except Saddler and Harness Maker* 

Boots and shoes. 

527 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

528 Clerical Force and Salesmen 

529 All other employees* 

Furs and fur goods, including dressing and dyeing 

530 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

531 Clerical Force and Salesmen 

532 All other employees* 



^Except Nos. 123, 124, 128, 129, 134 and 141. 



Military Census axd Inventory 83 

Canvas goods, including aicnings, canvas bags, sails, tarpaulins, 
tents and window shades 

533 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

534 Clerical Force and Salesmen 

535 All other employees except Tent and Sail Makers* 

Ruiher and gutta-percha goods. 

536 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

537 Clerical Force and Salesmen 

538 All other employees* 

Pearl, bone, celluloid, hair, etc., including combs, sponges, brushes, 
feather dusters, pilloivs, hair tnattresses 

539 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

540 Clerical Force and Salesmen 
551 All other employees* 



Medicines 

552 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

553 Clerical Force and Salesmen 

554 All other employees* 



Paints, Dyes and Colors, Including Varnishes and Inks 

206 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

207 Clerical and Selling Force 

208 All other employees* 



Chemicals 
Chemicals of all ki^uh, including baking powder, gas mantles, wash- 
ing fluids, etc. ; mineral and animal oils, wood alcohol and other oils, 
including candles, gasoline, naphtha, talloio, linseed oil, soap, per- 
fumery, cosmetics and miscellaneous chemical products, except explo- 
sives 
555 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 
5'56 Clerical Force and Salesmen 
557 All other employees* 



Photographic Supplies 

558 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

559 Clerical and Selling Force 

560 All other employees* 



Manufacture, Etc., of Paper and Pulp 
Manufacture of pulp and paper; sorting waste papers; printing and 
paper goods, including paper boxes, letter files, paper flowers, perfo- 
rated music, sample cards, stationery; printing and book-making, 
including bookbinding, electrotyping , engraving, lithographing ; wall 
paper 

210 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

211 Clerical Force and Salesmen 

212 All other employees* 



Except Nos. 123, 124, 128, 129, 134 and 141. 



84 'N'EW York State 

Textiles 
Manufactmers of silk, silk goods, linens, lace 

213 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

214 Clerical Force and Salesmen 

215 All other employees* 

Manufacturers of cordage, burlap, oil cloth 

561 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

562 Clerical Force and Salesmen 

563 All other employees* 

Ma/nufactu/rers of woolen goods, mixture of cotton and wool, etc. 

300 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

301 Clerical and Selling Force 

302 All other employees* 

Clothing, millinery, men's and tvomen's garments, furnishings, head-wear 

303 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

304 Clerical and Selling Force 

305 All other employees* 

Cleaning and Dyeing 

306 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

307 Clerical and Selling Force 

308 All other employees* 



Food 

Food industries, such as bakeries, flour and grain mills, sugar refineries, coffee 

roasting, confectionery 

565 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

566 Clerical and Selling Force 

567 All other employees* 

Fruit and Vegetable Canning 

568 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

569 Clerical and Selling Force 

570 All other employees* 

Slaughter and Packing Houses 

571 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

572 Clerical and Selling Force 

573 All other employees, except butchers* 

Fish Curing and Packing 

574 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

575 Clerical and Selling Force 

576 All other employees* 

Beverages (soft), such as distilled water, artificial ice, soda, grape juice, 

bottled spring water 

310 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

311 Clerical and Selling Force 

312 AH other employees* 



Except Nos. 123, 124, 128, 129, 134 and 141. 



Military Census and Inventory 85 

Liquors 
Manufacturers and sellers of beer, whiskey, ale, porter, etc. 

220 Proprietors, Managers and iSuperintendents 

221 Clerical Force and salesmen 

222 All other employees* 

Tobacco 
Manufacturers and sellers of cigars and other tobacco products 

225 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

226 Clerical Force and Salesmen 

227 All other employees* 

Public Utilities 

Water, gas, electricity, steam heat 

580 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

581 Clerical Force and Salesmen 

582 All other employees* 



Transportation and Communication 

600 Boatmen, canalmen and lockkeepers 

601 Longshoremen and stevedores 

602 Engineers and other employees on lakes (not Great Lakes), harbors 

and rivers 

Railroad Transportation 

610 Executive staff 

611 Clerical staff 

612 Conductors and brakemen 

613 Enginemen 

614 Firemen 

615 Yardsmen 

616 Shopmen 

617 Trackmen 

618 All others 

Telegraphers and Telephone Operators under own heading 

Elevated, Subway and Trolley and City Bus Lines 

620 Executive staff 

621 Clerical staff 

622 Drivers and conductors except drivers on City Bus Lines 

623 All other employees* 

Telegraph and Telephone Companies 

625 Executive staff 

626 Clerical staff 

627 Other employees, except telegraph and telephone operators and truck 

drivers 

Express and Transfer Companies 

628 Proprietors, Managers of 

629 Other employees 



Coal and Lumber Yards 

630 Proprietors, Superintendents and Managers 

631 Other employees 



Except ISTos. 123, 124, 128, 129, 134 and 141. 



86 New York State 

Retail Stores, and Dealers, Excluding Opticians, Optometrists, Bakers and 

Liquor Stores 

230 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

231 Clerks and other employees 



Wholesale Dealers and Stores, Importers and Exporters 

700 Proprietors, Managers and Superintendents 

701 Other employees 

702 Machinists and Mechanics, not otherwise specified 

710 College professors 

711 Teachers, except teachers of music and dancing 

712 Students, medical 

713 Students, dental 

714 Students, engineering 

715 Students, chemistry 

716 Students, other technical 

717 Students, all other students 



Hotels, Restaurants, Cafes, Lunch Rooms, Clubs and Caterers 

235 Owners and Managers 

236 Employees 



Laundries 

720 Owners, Managers and Superintendents 

721 Employees 

722 Launderers and laundresses (not in laundry) 

723 Carriage and hack drivers 

724 Draymen and teamsters 

725 Livery stable keepers and managers 

726 Livery stable, other employees, excluding hostlers and stablehands 



Building Trades 

730 Plasterers, roofers and slaters 

731 Stone masons and bricklayers 

732 Structural iron workers 

733 Other workers, including laborers 



Amusements 

240 Actors and actresses 

240 Moving Theatre employees 

240 Showmen and employees (amusements other than theatres and movies) 

240 Theatrical OA\Tiers, managers and employees 

240 Musicians and teachers of music and dancing 

800 Accountant and Auditors 

250 Agents not otherwise specified and adjusters 

801 Architects 

802 Artists, sculptors and teachers of art. 

803 Authors, editors and reporters and public speakers 

805 Bankers and bank and foreign exchange, stock, insurance, real estate 

and other brokers 

270 Brokers, employees of 

251 Barbers, hairdressers and manicurists 



MiLiTAiiY Census and Inventory 87 

255 Capitalists and retired and no occupation 

256 Clerks and office employees not otherwise specified 

810 Coopers 

811 Designers and draftsmen, excluding architects and designers of clothes 

and other apparel 
260 Designers of clothes and other apparel 

815 Elevator, grain, employees 

816 Fertilizer and phosphate mill employees 

817 Hospital, sanatorium and asylum officials and employees except doctors 

and nurses 
735 Firemen, stationary, not connected with plants already specified 
900 Housewife 

820 Judges (not of State Courts) 

821 Lawyers and Law Clerks, Notaries and Commissioners of Dteds 
740 Eeligioua and charity workers and settlement workers 

750 Laborers not connected with any industry already specified 



Miscellaneous 

280 Bath and bathing-house employees 

280 Boarding and lodging-house keepers 

280 Bootblacks 

280 Charwomen and cleaners 

280 Elevatormen and tenders, janitors and sextons 

280 House servants 

280 Newsboys 

280 Pawnbi'okers 

280 Porters not otherwise specified 

280 Peddlers and junk dealers 

280 Street cleaners 

830 Midwives and untrained nurses 

840 Officers and officials of companies not otherwase specified 

841 Opticians and Optometrists 

281 Pa.perhangers 

845 Professional men not otherwise specified 

850 Prison officials and employees, except doctors and nurses 

855 Seamstress 

860 Undertakers 

861 Upholsterers 



L'BRARY OF CONGRESS ^ 

020 933 462 8 



LiBRftRV OF CONGRSi 



020 933 462 8 



